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"Bless The Child". . .

Just Another Copycat

The Seventh Sense? Not Even Close

It's happened a hundred times before. Some writer in Hollywood, exhausted from reading all of the bad reviews

his latest blockbuster flop received from the critics, takes a trip to the movies to see how the other half lives.

After shelling out the $8 and watching the latest Oscar nominee, the writer leaves the movie theater with a new lease on life, silently thinking to himself, "That was good--but I can make it better."

And that thought, my fellow men, is what we have to blame for our silent longing to hear John Williams music while we were snoozing through "Deep Blue Sea."

It is also at fault for all of the emotion-less, beer-less, Rene Russo-less attempts Disney made at upstaging "Major League."

And it is also the culprit behind the latest blockbuster copycat, Paramount Pictures' "Bless The Child," which hit movie theaters on August 11. It might just be bad eyesight, but I checked a few times, and nowhere in the credit listing did I see M. Night Shyamalan's name.

The basic plot line is as such: six-year-old Cody (played by Holliston Coleman) is an autistic child who was left by her mother on her Aunt Maggie's (played by Kim Basinger) doorstep when she was just a newborn. The child's birth falls on a day very symbolic in the Bible, and when Cody's mother's new husband, Eric (played extremely unconvincingly by Rufus Sewell), who also just happens to serve Satan, discovers this, he comes after her with a vengeance.


Kim Bassinger

The one bright spot in this flick is the return to the police station by ex-"NYPD Blue" actor Jimmy Smits. Smits plays John Travis, an ex-priest-turned-cop who specializes in ritualistic crimes. Travis helps Maggie track down her niece once Eric kidnaps her.

In theory, the movie could have worked. Sure, the plot was largely unbelievable. But then again, so was "The Sixth Sense." However, what will keep "The Sixth Sense" on a short list of the greatest horror movies of all time is the same thing that will relegate "Bless The Child" to USA's "Up All Night" sometime in the near future. While "The Sixth Sense" cast

received numerous Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for outstanding performance, the acting in "Bless The Child," besides that of Jimmy Smits, makes you wonder when rehearsal is over and the real movie starts.

Granted, the plots differ slightly. Cody is trying to fight off the demons of hell, while Cole Sear is fighting off his own personal demons. But come on. They couldn't make it too obvious, could they? And besides, if you throw out all the extra stuff, what you're basically left with is a kid who has a gift that no one else has, and an adult with problems of his or her own trying to help him out.

And let's face it: Holliston Coleman is no Haley Joel Osment. And, while she may have an Oscar, Kim Basinger has never uttered words as immortal as "Yipee-ki-yay, mother fucker."

 

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Tao of Steve
The Watcher
Bless The Child

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