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Movie Review for Reaping, The
Movie Review for
Reaping, The
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Reaping, The | | |
| Also known as: | |
109 Reviews total.
Release date: 4/5/2007
Run length: 98 mins.
Categories:
Science Fiction/Fantasy
,
Suspense/Horror
,
Thriller
,
Politics/Religion
Summary:
Katherine Winter doesn't believe in miracles--she believes in facts. A former minister, Katherine turned her back on the cloth after losing her young daughter and husband while doing missionary work in the Sudan, and now seeks answers through scientific investigation rather than prayer. As a university professor, she has become the foremost debunker of supposed miracles, called to sites all over the world to investigate weeping statues, wall stains resembling saints and palms that bleed. And so far, there is no divine mystery she hasn't solved. But when small-town schoolteacher Doug Blackwell seeks her help with a series of bizarre occurrences the townspeople believe to be sent by God, Katherine and her partner Ben come to learn that sometimes miracles can be treacherous, and the line between faith and superstition is dangerously thin. Hidden among the woods and swamplands of Louisiana, Haven is a town where the rules of reason seem to have been rewritten. A child has died and the river has turned to blood, which is only the beginning of what appears to be a revisiting of the Biblical ten plagues upon the town. For the first time in her professional career, Katherine can't explain these phenomena with science. The townspeople believe an enigmatic child named Loren McConnell has brought God's wrath to their doorstep, but what they see as a harbinger of evil, Katherine sees as a lost child needing her help. The more she is drawn into the dark heart of the mystery, the more Katherine discovers her own role in a conspiracy that threatens to shroud the world in darkness.
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Kevin Carr
of 7M Pictures (8/0)
The Reaping suffers from the plague of a terrible script... The story floundered around like a dr...
By
John Wirt
of Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (8/0)
The Reaping's last-act adrenaline can't save it from the genre clichés that precede it.
By
Mike McGranaghan
of Aisle Seat (8/0)
The Reaping is a bad movie, but it also achieves a level of preposterousness that is som...
By
Phil Villarreal
of Arizona Daily Star (8/0)
At least the sordid screenplay provides this fantastic line, uttered by Ben: "Forget about it. Le...
By
Christy Lemire
of Associated Press (8/0)
It's a highfalutin hodgepodge of biblical mumbo jumbo, more likely to inspire laughter than fear.
By
Lori Hoffman
of Atlantic City Weekly (8/0)
... goes from barely tolerable to insufferable in the time it takes to unveil a stupid twist endi...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Marrit Ingman
of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
Chock-full of pointless backstory and convoluted flashbacks. The filmmakers intend to be mysterio...
By
Anna Smith
of BBC (7/0)
It's a sad state of affairs when the fit of Hilary Swank's casual slacks is more interesting than...
By
Wesley Morris
of Boston Globe (8/0)
...long-delayed, pitiful excuse for a horror film...
By
Fred Topel
of Can Magazine (8/0)
It's an old testament Da Vinci Code... Hilary Swank has better hair than Tom Hanks any day.
By
Michael Phillips
of Chicago Tribune (8/0)
Ludicrous and overstuffed...
By
Jeffrey Overstreet
of Christianity Today (8/0)
When Ben exclaims, 'There's still three plagues to go! We gotta get outta here!', most viewers wi...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Jules Brenner
of Cinema Signals (8/0)
A stream of shocks and blessings a teenager can thrill to.
By
Jeff Otto
of cinemaobsession.com (8/0)
What hath God wrought? A terrible, terrible movie.
By
Scott Weinberg
of Cinematical (8/0)
When a movie can't even make something like "biblical plagues" worth watching, you just know you'...
By
Mark Palermo
of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (8/0)
Between effects-shots is a whole movie of people discussing how fascinating things are.
By
Cole Smithey
of ColeSmithey.com (8/0)
In a movie with no purpose beyond small-scale grotesque spectacle, I can only imagine its purpose...
By
Jeffrey M. Anderson
of Combustible Celluloid (8/0)
The film's most aggravating trait is its scare technique... which is more like listening to a noi...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Christopher Tookey
of Daily Mail [UK] (8/0)
Here, for all fans of the world's most pathetic movies, is an apocalyptically disastrous horror f...
By
Jonathan Ross
of Daily Mirror [UK] (8/0)
With a touch of X Files, a smattering of The Omen and perhaps a little too much hokiness, it’s al...
By
Garth Franklin
of Dark Horizons (8/0)
If you had to choose between watching this and suffering boils, take the option which at least yo...
By
Dezhda Mountz
of E! Online (8/0)
Hilary Swank, what the, er, heck are you doing here?
By
David Foucher
of EDGE Boston (8/0)
Hilary Swank wades through bitchin' plagues and comes out looking hot. Film at 11. DVD at 11:30...
By
Dan Lybarger
of eFilmCritic.com (8/0)
The most striking image in 'The Reaping' is a repeated shot of unusual looking wind chimes blowin...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Dawn Taylor
of eFilmCritic.com (8/0)
Hillary Swank is a minister AND a scientist! No, I'm not making this up. Please, stop laughing.
By
Erik Childress
of eFilmCritic.com (8/0)
Takes us down a brimstone path of idiocy and outright boredom punctuated by a soundtrack which go...
By
Emanuel Levy
of EmanuelLevy.Com (8/0)
Just when you thought Hilary Swank was on the right track, along comes this shlocky and pretentio...
By
Liz Beardsworth
of Empire Magazine (7/0)
The impressive cast do their best to bring a sense of conviction to the piece, but it had to have...
By
Vince Koehler
of Entertainment Spectrum (8/0)
The Reaping was entertaining and thrilling but fell slightly short on plot development.
By
Owen Gleiberman
of Entertainment Weekly (8/0)
...a film that's a chain of disaster chintz masquerading as a sermon.
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Eric D. Snider
of EricDSnider.com (8/0)
Ads for The Reaping ask 'What hath God wrought?,' but I don't think it's fair to pin this on Him.
By
Eugene Novikov
of Film Blather (8/0)
If you turn away from God and do not repent, God will kill you. You will die. The end.
By
Walter Chaw
of Film Freak Central (8/0)
Has consummate, dedicated emptiness as its only lingering aftertaste.
By
Daniel Eagan
of Film Journal International (8/0)
The Reaping does at least prove the old axiom that the Devil comes in many forms, one of them cel...
By
Pete Vonder Haar
of Film Threat (8/0)
Can she unravel the mystery before the loving and merciful God smites every firstborn child? And ...
By
Sean O'Connell
of filmcritic.com (8/0)
Trouble sleeping? Try The Reaping.
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Sean O'Connell
of filmcritic.com (8/0)
Trouble sleeping? Try The Reaping.
By
Victoria Alexander
of FilmsInReview.com (8/0)
Swank takes some time off to vacation in a silly paranormal thriller.
By
Brent Simon
of FilmStew.com (8/0)
The fact remains that audiences don’t seem particularly drawn to Swank in anything other than ase...
By
MaryAnn Johanson
of Flick Filosopher (8/0)
Forget a plague of boils -- how about a plague of boredom followed by a plague of oh-my-god-is-it...
By
Rob Vaux
of Flipside Movie Emporium (8/0)
Fool! Dost thou not know that creepy children have cursed our screens in numbers too great to cou...
By
Eric Lurio
of Greenwich Village Gazette (8/0)
Let's just hope Hillary Swank remains too big to do a #2.
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Andrew Pulver
of Guardian [UK] (7/0)
Satanic horror films are always good for a laugh, and this one is no exception.
By
Kirk Honeycutt
of Hollywood Reporter (8/0)
Religious horror with multiple shocks but little substance.
By
Staci Layne Wilson
of Horror.com (8/0)
You had me at Hell.
By
Amy Biancolli
of Houston Chronicle (8/0)
[Director Stephen Hopkins] must have decided that horror needn't be technically horrifying, just ...
By
Stax
of IGN Movies (7/0)
If The Reaping had been sown with fresher ideas, you might actually care if the devil went down t...
By
Jim Slotek
of Jam! Movies (8/0)
The Reaping leaves you with little to do but ask yourself questions like: 'Why would the antichri...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Andrea Chase
of Killer Movie Reviews (8/0)
Just in time for Passover, Easter, and/or any other equinoctial festival on your liturgical calen...
By
Prairie Miller
of Long Island Press (8/0)
Swank pouts her way through The Reaping as a disillusioned minister turned cynical professional g...
By
Evan Henerson
of Los Angeles Daily News (8/0)
Amidst such mayhem, there isn't much for a two time Oscar winner like Swank to do with herself, e...
By
Mark Dujsik
of Mark Reviews Movies (8/0)
A mess of theological ponderings, cheap twists and turns, and cheesy stylistic choices.
By
Pete Hammond
of Maxim (8/0)
What Hath Hollywood Wrought (or should that be ROT)?We GET it. "The end" is coming. Just not soon...
By
Matt Pais
of Metromix.com (8/0)
A bad movie is a bad movie, even if Hilary Swank is in it.
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Stanley A. Miller II
of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (8/0)
The film uses every contrived scary-movie trick to jar the audience -- doors suddenly blow open, ...
By
Ken Hanke
of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (8/0)
The posters pose the question, 'What hath God wrought?' --and apparently answer themselves by hav...
By
Kevin A. Ranson
of MovieCrypt.com (8/0)
... attempt(s) to convince audiences that the real story is one of faith while at the same time h...
By
Kyle Smith
of New York Post (8/0)
The ending isn't terribly obvious, but neither is it terribly original.
By
Manohla Dargis
of New York Times (7/0)
The only remotely notable thing about this particular jumble of boos, bangs and door creaks is th...
By
Manohla Dargis
of New York Times (8/0)
...schlock-o-rama...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Jeffrey Westhoff
of Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) (8/0)
The most positive thing about The Reaping is that it isn't as big a waste of time as last year's ...
By
Brian Orndorf
of OhmyNews.com (8/0)
It's a horror experience coated in a sticky slime of inertia; a story of wrath and booming heaven...
By
Frank Swietek
of One Guy's Opinion (8/0)
An unholy mixture of religious balderdash and horror-movie cliche...it would probably be wise to ...
By
Nathan Rabin
of Onion AV Club (8/0)
For bad-movie lovers, it's manna from heaven.
By
John Thomason
of Orlando Weekly (8/0)
The whole thing is just as ludicrous, pseudo-intellectual and spiritually bereft as The Da Vinci ...
By
Fiore Mastracci
of Outtakes With Fiore (8/0)
Equal parts "Devil's Rain" & "Rosemary's Baby" mixed with SFX from "The Mummy" and "Raiders of th...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Cynthia Fuchs
of PopMatters (8/0)
That Ben (Idris Elba) is the sensible sign reader from jump only makes the folks around him look ...
By
Laine Ewen
of Premiere Magazine (8/0)
The Reaping isn't completely terrible. It just majorly overreaches.
By
Linda Cook
of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (8/0)
Even the finest of talents goes south now and then. That's what Hilary Swank does in "The Reaping...
By
David N. Butterworth
of rec.arts.movies.reviews (8/0)
Swank maintains one's rapt attention but Stephen Hopkins's plague-a-thon is one grim reaper, remi...
By
Karina Montgomery
of rec.arts.movies.reviews (8/0)
Is this movie a good old-fashioned good versus evil potboiler or a newfangled political statement...
By
Mark Pfeiffer
of Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (8/0)
Like a southern fried X-Files, The Reaping explores peculiar incidents with a mix of belief and s...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Jim Hemphill
of Reel.com (8/0)
The creators of The Reaping don't believe in their own pro-spirituality message, which they're wi...
By
John P. McCarthy
of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (8/0)
'The Reaping' is further proof that faith and reason are both readily sacrificed on the shallow a...
By
James Berardinelli
of ReelViews (8/0)
For about 50 minutes, it's reasonably coherent and offers a few interesting ideas and characters,...
By
Jim Lane
of Sacramento News & Review (8/0)
Swank, once more, does more for the movie than it does for her...
By
Larry Ratliff
of San Antonio Express-News (8/0)
God sends down a river of blood, swarming locusts and two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank....
By
Ruthe Stein
of San Francisco Chronicle (8/0)
...a preposterous horror flick that delivers more unintentional laughs than shocks.
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Sean McBride
of Sean the Movie Guy (8/0)
a derivative and wooden religious horror flick, timed somewhat distastefully to take advantage of...
By
William Arnold
of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (8/0)
...Swank elevates the proceedings with a credible performance and some of the plague effects are ...
By
Moira MacDonald
of Seattle Times (8/0)
What, I shudder to think, were the projects Hilary Swank turned down in favor of this one?
By
Rich Cline
of Shadows on the Wall (8/0)
Starting as an intriguing faith-themed thriller, this film quickly descends into gonzo nuttiness.
By
Ed Gonzalez
of Slant Magazine (8/0)
Disguises its utter lack of significance beneath incoherent backtracking, old-school-religion bro...
By
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
of Spirituality and Practice (8/0)
The only good thing about this supernatural thriller is that the atheist finally comes to see tha...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Thomas Peyser
of Style Weekly (Richmond, VA) (8/0)
Makes The Omen look like a masterpiece of spiritual probing and cinematic integrity.
By
Dustin Putman
of TheMovieBoy.com (8/0)
Ungodly awful.
By
Frank Ochieng
of TheWorldJournal.com (8/0)
Let's face it, folks...The Reaping is one eerie cinematic Easter ham that will be tough to swallo...
By
Scott Nash
of Three Movie Buffs (8/0)
Forget Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don't Cry, keeping a straight face here could be the greatest...
By
Joshua Rothkopf
of Time Out New York (8/0)
Religious horror will always be with us, but if The Reaping connects, it’ll only be because we si...
By
Ken Fox
of TV Guide's Movie Guide (8/0)
[Director] Hopkins relies far too heavily on sudden loud soundtrack noises to inject some scares ...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Brian Tallerico
of UnderGround Online (8/0)
It's hard to believe that when God does reap his vengeance that it will be this boring.
By
Urban Cinefile Critics
of Urban Cinefile (8/0)
If there is an instruction manual for supernatural horror films, the filmmakers of The Reaping ha...
By
Claudia Puig
of USA Today (8/0)
...a laughably bad movie.
By
Justin Chang
of Variety (8/0)
For all its high-minded aspirations, The Reaping really shows its cards in the final reels, with ...
By
Matthew Turner
of ViewLondon (8/0)
The Reaping is frequently silly, occasionally cliched and slow to get going, but the acting is go...
By
Willie Waffle
of WaffleMovies.com (8/0)
The only way The Reaping could be worse would be if Swank put on a bear suit and ran through the ...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Susan Granger
of www.susangranger.com (8/0)
When a thriller starring two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank sits on the shelf for a year, it's us...
By
John Beifuss
of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
The film may be ridiculous, but give me a river of blood, a rain of frogs, a plague of flies and ...
By
Christopher Smith
of Bangor Daily News (Maine) (7/1) No reference
The 11th Biblical plague.
By
Chad Greene
of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
Perhaps the best way to put it is that the cast and crew reap what they so-so.
By
J. R. Jones
of Chicago Reader (3/4) No reference
An insult to intelligence and faith alike.
By
Paige Wiser
of Chicago Sun-Times (7/1) No reference
Swank is worth every penny, bringing what gravity she can to dialogue that is occasionally laugh-...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Jeff Vice
of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/1) No reference
The film uses cheap scare devices galore in an attempt to generate some suspense, but which inste...
By
Donald Munro
of Fresno Bee (7/1) No reference
Think of it as The Omen meets Oil of Olay.
By
James Sanford
of Kalamazoo Gazette (7/1) No reference
A piece of jittery junk. If it didn't star Hilary Swank, this fiasco would almost certainly have ...
By
Loey Lockerby
of Kansas City Star (3/5) No reference
Most of the actors are adequate but hardly interesting enough to make anyone care about their cha...
By
Nell Minow
of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/1) No reference
What once held some promise of being a clever film explodes into a mess of trite plot devices and...
By
Carla Meyer
of Sacramento Bee (7/1) No reference
Quality battles schlock throughout The Reaping. That is, until the picture's final act, when schl...
Reviews of Reaping, The
By
Harvey S. Karten
of Compuserve (7/1) Not Reachable
If you've seen 'The Omen,' 'The Exorcist,' and 'Rosemary's Baby,' you've seen 'The Reaping.'
Movie Distributors
Warner Bros. Pictures International
Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution Production Companies
Village Roadshow Pictures Entertainment
Dark Castle Entertainment
Silver Pictures Movie Studios
Warner Bros. Pictures
Inc.
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