This could have been great if it was better executed with better actors and ...
591405
This could have been great if it was better executed with better actors and decent sets.  It looks so cheaply created. Bummer
670330
I really wanted to like this movie much more than I did, although I think there were several inspired performances which raised the movie from ho-hum to somewhat better than average. The biggest problem with the movie was that it has been done before, and much better: "The Dead Poet's Society" and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" are two movies that instantly leap to my mind. In my opinion, the movie emphasized the wrong characters: the young women played by Kristen Dunst and Julia Stiles were far less interesting than the Maggie Gyllenhaal and Juliet Stevenson characters (the Stevenson character left the movie far too early). The marriage vs career script was for the most part uninspiring and ho-hum. The characters, except for Gyllenhaal and Dunst, were pretty much divided up between all good and all bad; Dunst's mother was a stock villain who seemed straight out of that classic of the early 1960s, "A Summer Place."
The outstanding performances of the movie were turned in by Julia Roberts and Marcia Gay Harden, playing women totally opposite from each other who became friends of sorts. Ms Harden did an excellent job of portraying a woman so scared of living that she would rather stay home to watch a game show on televison than go out for a night on the town with the friend who would soon be leaving forever. That scene neatly forshadowed the rest of the characer's life, hunkering down to protect herself from the world. Roberts performance was vastly underrated: it will be a long time before I forget how skillfully she portrayed the humiliation her character felt when tormented on her first day in the classroom by her students.
More bonus material on the DVD would have been welcome, but this seems to be getting to be fairly standard for regularly priced DVDs.
4517422
Decent but a little overplayed. Casting could have been a little better.
4317981
This should have been a great movie.  It has good, even very good actors with at least an A- storyline.  It creates what could have been complex and dynamic relationships between our lead characters.  And then it limps from start to finish.  Some nice moments between our lovers, and that's about it.  Except for the romantic leads the rest of the relationships in the film don't develop much depth or feeling, and the ending is thin and disappointing.  Wanted to like this film.  Gave it away once I was done.
4815465
With a cast full of great actors and a classic plot this should have been an excellent movie.  However, it moved painfully slowly  towards an overly abrupt ending.  Norton did a great acting job which often causes viewers to consider this a quality movie.  He is so good that often the nonsensical ending to the movie is overlooked.  If you believed that this was a good movie I ask you to watch it once more and try to imagine how the heist could possibly be pulled off in that manner, there are siply too many flaws to deal with.  Feel free to watch this movie, but please think about it before you take the slow paced plot as a sign of quality.
3460656
The talented actors deserve a much better edit job. Some of the scenes shouldn't have been included. Very weak ending.
217042
It turned out a bit better than I expected. There were a few decent moments. Too bad the Elf Man himself was so poor at acting, with a better actor in that role, could have been much better.
1481920
If this was a first effort at producing and directing psychological horror then it is a fine attempt.  So many little things would have improved the story line and made this an excellent movie. To start with, if the directors had used the professor as the focus of the movie and only showed us the slow decent into madness from his perspective so that some of the actual horror takes place off camera but is alluded too through him coming onto the scene would have given a greater impact upon coming across these scenes.  The movie would thus begin with his arrival and then we are introduced to the other characters playing cards.  Inside jokes that we don't understand, as the professor would not, would help establish that these guys have been here far too long already and know each other really well.  Next, the writer needed to spend more time on the archaeological site and give us the impression that perhaps it was the cause of the madness and not the isolation but the introduction of the deer thing takes away our ability to wonder if they are seeing things or these things are real.  Again by focusing on one character and watching things happen around him would leave it to the viewer to decide if the events that happen are a result of isolation or the thing they dug up.  My last suggestion on here, but not the last little thing I would change, is to have the guys shut up in cabins several times during the events because of weather.  This reinforces the continues statements made by the guys about the terrible weather and helps us view "hours" of being cooped up rather than the seeming freedom that all of the characters have to come and go as they want.  Just a few changes like this and the film really would have been good.
1992634
It was/is a congested movie.  does not flow smoothly from scene to scene.  Actually to many subplots.  It the fault of the writers/directors, because there are just too many fine actors for this not to work better
327508
John Cusack, Paul Dano, and Paul Giamatti all give great performances, and the film as a whole could have been great (maybe with a better script or a better director), but something was missing.
1661992
Movie was a little drawn out.  The actor selection was good and seemed true to their counterparts on the tv show.  The movie had great potential but missed its mark.  Its not a waste of time to  watch but could have been done much better.
2218364
I must say that I looked forward to this movie more than it deserved. The premise, as promised by the trailers, was intriguing and promised to be very entertaining. The animation was superb, making physically impossible feats seem quite reasonable, even probable.

The problem is, so much time was spent on the look of the movie, the story line ended up getting the short end of the stick. So much was crowded into each sequence that the film ended up seeming like a series of loosely connected vignettes. The producers should have opted to make two films, with the last three sequences being a separate sequel. That would have allowed for more character development, and more screen time for the dog, clearly the smartest one in the film.
1010495
Both the script and the acting could have used some help. Half the movie involved people going room to room in the dark.
561099
This movie COULD have been pretty damn good - if it weren't for an aging Tom Cruise trying to steal the spotlight, as usual. Some guys just can't deal with getting older, and Tom Cruise is clearly the president of that fan club. The story itself it pretty decent - until you get to the usual "must make the star look invincible, virile and irresistible!" bits, and it just falls flat. If the script had been given to a more gifted actor like Matt Damon, it would've been a much better success.
2995236
The final is very good but, before that, the movie sometimes is bored.  It can be better if the actors made a better effort.
2053175
Unfortunately they took a wonderful story and cheesed it up. This movie is actually laughable at some points! With a bigger budget and better acting and special effects this could have been a really great movie
1297193
Good actors with a clever story line that could have been done in 1/2 the time. IF you've got nothing better to do, watch this movie