Another Heaven (2000)

You know, it's funny how a couple little things can bring down a promising film. Take this Japanese horror flick, for instance. I mean, if it didn't steal most of its plot from The Hidden and The Borrower, and if it was better acted, and if it had any likeable or sympathetic characters at all, and if it made even the tiniest bit of sense, and if the director's talent went beyond generic-TV-movie competency, and if the character of Asako wasn't such a blatant plot device/expositional-dialogue vessel, and if it was well-paced as opposed to peripatetic and wheezy, and if all the characters weren't all total idiots as well as being jerks, and if Asako wasn't also conveniently psychic and/or a forensic genius whenever the plot needed her to be, and if the climax wasn't sappy, self-important, idiotic, meretricious and convenient all in one fell swoop, and if the title wasn't derived from one of the dumbest "villainous" monologues ever written, and if the supernatural evil thingabob, when revealed, wasn't so hysterically non-threatening, and if the last five minutes weren't excruciating in their stubborn refusal to just fucking END and let the credits roll already, and if the whole mess didn't clock in at an overblown and endless 135 minutes... why then, this film would probably be really good!

Grade: D