Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Gothika (2003)

4/23/2020

Gothika (2003) - Stars caught in frightfully poor script

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Star Halle Berry is caught in the rain with a disturbing, presumably self-made injury on her left arm on this chilling poster for Mathieu Kassovitz's Gothika

A woman psychiatrist in a mental hospital for women suffers a car accident and wakes up three days later, accused of having murdered her husband! Against all odds she has to prove to herself and the people around her that a ghost did it!

Gothika is written by Sebastian Gutierrez (The Big Bounce (2004)) and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz (Café au Lait (1993)).
The story of Gothika is extremely silly and sluggish, though the events still fly by way too fast to warrant any effect. Instead of telling a frightening tale the filmmakers emphasize disturbing special effects.
The otherwise skilled actors are struggling with a frightfully dumb script in Gothika: Halle Berry (Race the Sun (1996)), Robert Downey Jr. (Due Date (2010)) and Penélope Cruz (Not Love, Just Frenzy (1996)) and the rest make little impact here.

Related posts:

Mathieu Kassovitz: 2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Amélie/Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) - Jeunet's hugely overrated Paris romance is an unbearable construct and trial (co-star)
The Crimson Rivers/Les Rivières Pourpres (2000) - Se7en-type action crime flick in the French Alps

Watch a 3-minute scene from the film here

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 141.6 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.54 times its cost)
[Gothika premiered 13 November (USA) and runs 98 minutes. Berry was paid 6 mil. $ to star in the film. Shooting took place in Québec, including Montréal from April - ? 2003. Downey Jr. broke Berry's arm during filming by accident, halting production for 8 weeks. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Cat in the Hat, to a 19.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 3 weekends (#4-#4-#4) and grossed 59.6 mil. $ (42.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Kassovitz's native France with 10.4 mil. $ (7.3 %) and the UK with 9.6 mil. $ (6.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Kassovitz returned with Babylon A.D. (2008). Berry returned in Limp Bizkit music video Behind Blue Eyes (2003) and theatrically in Catwoman (2004). Gothika is rotten at 15 % with a 4.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gothika?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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4/23/2020

Gothika (2003) - Stars caught in frightfully poor script

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