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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Eye, The
Lionsgate


6.7

based on 13 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 42 votes
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FILM:

The Eye
Them

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence/terror and disturbing content

Starring Jessica Alba, Parker Posey, Alessandro Nivola, Tamlyn Tomita, and Chloe Moretz

Sydney Wells is an accomplished, independent, Los Angeles-based concert violinist. She is also blind, and has been so since a childhood tragedy. Sydney undergoes a double corneal transplant, a surgery she has waited her whole life to have, and her sight is restored. After the surgery, neural ophthalmologist Dr. Paul Faulkner helps Sydney with the difficult adjustment, and with the support of her older sister Helen, Sydney learns to see again. But Sydney's happiness is short-lived as unexplainable shadowy and frightening images start to haunt her. Are they a passing aftermath of her surgery, Sydney's mind adjusting to sight, a product of her imagination, or something horrifyingly real? As Sydney's family and friends begin to doubt her sanity, Sydney is soon convinced that her anonymous eye donor has somehow opened the door to a terrifying world only she can now see. (Lionsgate)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Horror \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Sebastian Gutierrez Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui (2002 screenplay Jian gui)
DIRECTED BY:	David Moreau Xavier Palud
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 3, 2008 Theatrical: February 1, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	97 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

A quirkily efficient genre exercise that knows exactly where and when to administer its cattle-prod shivers.

Entertainment Weekly Leah Greenblatt

It's as if, on the umpteenth Asian-horror Xerox, the ink has run dry.

Variety Dennis Harvey

This slick effort is effectively creepsome until it bogs down somewhat in plot explication.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Unfortunately, the final act (the Mexico sequences) illustrate where to take a ghost story if you want to exchange old-fashioned horror for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Their movie is watchable - never more gratuitously so than when Alba is filmed showering and slipping into a tank top. But we've been here before, no?

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The most vivid aspect of The Eye is its poster image, that of a huge female eye with a human hand gripping the lower lid from the inside. The least vivid aspect is the way Jessica Alba delivers a simple line of expository dialogue.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

The major problem is the death of a horror film: It's startling, but not particularly scary.

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

Louder and more literal than its inspiration, The Eye benefits from a spiky performance by Alessandro Nivola as Sydney’s rehabilitation counselor. “Your eyes are not the problem,” he tells her at one point. He is so, so right.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Sacrifices the quietly creepy qualities of the original in favor of ramped-up horror film techniques that by now seem distressingly familiar.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

A tediously noisesome English-language remake of an Asian horror picture that wasn't any great shakes to begin with.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's hard to know who bears the brunt of the blame for The Eye's stunning dullness.

LA Weekly Jim Ridley

The entire movie is an object lesson in diminishing returns: of nagging shock cuts and blaring sound cues used as indiscriminately as joy buzzers; of “look out behind you!” scares that wouldn’t make a Cub Scout flinch; of a blurry visual scheme that was far more terrifying in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," where it sought empathy rather than empty sensation.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Most unforgivably, this Eye culminates not with the mounting dread and spectacular tragedy of the original film's decidedly downbeat vision, but with the trademark LASIK laziness of Hollywood's stylistically blank remake factory.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 42 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kevin C. gave it a3:
Predictable at every turn. The ending was weak. I'm sure the meat of the story was lost somewhere in the editing session.

Larry T. gave it a1:
It is a dull movie based on a dull written script. The only good part was Jessica Alba, or should I say "parts".

Mauricio L. gave it an8:
Great movie , huge twist at the end, and just the idea of the movie is messed up.

[Anonymous] gave it a5:
Hmm, well, its a horror film starring Ms Alba, what do you expect?

Glad viewer gave it a2:
Not scary, a few "spooks", but not horror-film-genre-worthy. Had no plot, or a very poor one at that. Nivola, the "counsler", is the worst actor i've seen in a long time. Wth, Is he fresh out of summer camp acting school? The ending was pretty much irrelevant to the plot, Alba was a pure disappointment, and the sorry never not lacked, because it never built a plot! GLAD I WATCHED IT ONLINE FREE!!

Liam H. gave it a4:
it was ok, less then avg. The beginning was cool but it just went downhill from there. If you've seen The Ring movies, then this is pretty much the same thing. You can almost place $million bets on the exact times of big stunners. I would rent it. Bottom line: Rent this movie, don't waste 9.95 for the movie ticket + $40 popcorn Its kinda like the whole Japanese movie conversions have been sucked down to their last drop of sweet nectar, and this is the aftermath.

Bob D. gave it a9:
Anything with Jessica Alba is amazing in my opinion. She could take a crap on a movie and its good.

Eye, The Lionsgate

Eye, The
Lionsgate