Ring Twoops!
Yeah. Ring 2? Not so much. Kind of a bummer, considering they brought in one of the best Japanese horror directors in the biz, Hideo Nakata. One gets the feeling he was strongly encouraged to "Americanize" his finished product, because it really lacks his usual deft touch. Planetarium has a theory that American film critics, despite their best intentions, often don't really "get" Asian horror, the intentionally alienating, space-cadet-y tone adopted, and thus resort to saying the movies are "not scary", or "lack character". Yet, when they watch Asian drama, they will praise the exact same "alienating" and "slow" tone. Just compare the reviews for The Grudge with the reviews for, say, Nobody Knows. It's eerie. And kind of sad. But that being said, much like John Woo, apparently Hollywood dd something unpleasant to Hideo Nakata. Sigh.