What’s the point of seeing a scary movie that isn’t scary? In this case, there isn’t much of one at all.
1408
2 Stars
It’s too bad. It really is. Because 1408 has a great first act. With a good 25 minutes of film dedicated solely to John Cusack being a pompous blowhard of a Writer (and really, isn’t that what we all are?), you settle into the character and know that, if anything bad happens to this character, you’re going to feel for him.
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Except then the bad stuff starts happening, and, well. . .
Cusack plays a failed (and often drinking) novelist who writes about haunted houses to pay the rent, but all the while feels violently over-qualified for the gig. It’s all going miserably until he checks into the Dolphin Hotel and becomes more miserable by experiencing his first actual haunting. So this is when it gets good, when the room is torturing Cusack and the audience with all sorts of cute thrills that have you squeezing the armrest, right? Wrong.
Once we’re in the namesake-numbered room, it feels like the movie is just wandering around the suite, trying to find an idea for a way to scare you; but most of the time it just comes up short. There are a few bright spots (like a failed escape from the room) but this PG-13 never gets your blood running. It’s just a tame thriller, and one that ends post-maturely and nonsensically at that.
The only force that keeps you in the film is Cusack. The guy is like a 160 pounds bag of frosted lovableness, impossible to not want to see on the screen. So it’s fun to watch a likable guy play a depressed asshole with a love for wisecracks, even while he’s experiencing his own personal Hell. Samuel L. Jackson contributes to the film when he’s trying desperately to dissuade Cusack from going into the infamous room, but his only scene lasts ten minutes. Oh well, at least he gets to say “fuck.”
Besides Cusack performance, there’s not much in the movie worth watching. And if you’re just wanting a good Cusack movie, you’d be better off just renting High Fidelity again.