 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
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 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Secret Window
- Review Date: June 20, 2004
- PG-13
- Genre: Thriller
- 2004
Common Sense Media says
It all feels recycled and re-recycled.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this movie has a great deal of tension, peril, and graphic violence, with grisly dead bodies. Characters are injured and killed. An animal is killed and a house is torched. There are sexual references and situations, including adultery. Characters smoke and drink, and there is a reference to alcohol abuse. There is some very strong language for a PG-13.
What's the story?
Based on Stephen King's book, SECRET WINDOW centers on horror writer Morty (Johnny Depp). Living in a remote cabin after splitting with his wife, Morty mostly mopes and sleeps. He loves his puppy and he literally won't hurt a mouse. But he can't seem to get back to work. The best he can do is delete what he has already written. And then there is a knock at the door. Enter the villain, a menacing man in a broad preacher's hat, who says that his name is John Shooter (John Turturro) and that Morty has stolen his story. All of the traditional thriller elements follow: the red herring, the seemingly ineffectual sheriff and the seemingly powerful ally, the property damage, the shocking deaths, the framing of the hero for the crimes, the creepy music, the tight close-ups that keep us from knowing what's outside the frame, and of course, the a-ha moment.
Is it any good?
We know what scares Stephen King. That most prolific of writers is still terrified by an empty computer screen, or, even worse, a screen with writing that is irreparably bad. And that author whose imagination has kept millions of happily terrified readers up all night is still scared of losing control of that imagination or having it disappear completely.
It all feels recycled and re-recycled. Depp is always watchable and he seems to be enjoying Morty's long solo scenes as a sort of on-camera acting exercise. There are a couple of tingly reveals and creepy fake-outs, but overall it's just too familiar. John Shooter tells Morty that his story needs a better ending. So does this movie.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the clues that indicate what the final twist will be, including the very first scene and the scene in the bathroom. Why is it important that Morty had a past experience with a charge of plagiarism?
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AGE
OK
This movie used a lot of the same scenes over and over again it seemed. But other than that I really enjoyed it. It was interesting, suspenseful, and had a good ending.
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AGE
It was pretty good....
I liked it. I am not a person easily scared by movies so the scaryness of it didn't bother me.Just like every other movie, secret window had it's gory parts, but they weren't to much to handel. So if you are a person easily scared by movies, or just don't like blood and gore, i wouldn't recomend this movie to you. And other than the blood, violence, and scaryness. it was a good movie and it got three and a half to four stars in my opinion.
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AGE
Decent
Pretty good movie. Reason i said 15+ is cause i dunno if someone much younger would really get it. Some violence, you see the dog after it gets killed. Some other stuff, but nothing excessive i'd say. It's pretty trippy, so if you're into that kind of stuff, i'd say go for it.
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AGE
Huh...what? Oh, hold up a sec, I'm trying to gather myself together again
What most people do not know is that this movie exists...and what most of the people who DO know this movie exists DON'T know is that this is based off of four stories by Stephen King. And if you've read mostly ANYTHING he's written, you'd probably feel the way me and Common Sense Media do. This is just, as King puts it in the novel, "Dreamcatcher: A Novel," "it was just SSDD for him"...and yes, the actual title has "A Novel" on it. But even so, this is a twisted movie, which, I guess, is sorta what King's good at. But still, it's the SAME OLD stuff story after Story after STORY! Sure, he did something diffferent with Shawshank, Mile, and some Body, but those were real good! And he didn't try doing MORE like them! I just don't understand.. Maybe they just didn't sell as well as his horror novels. Anyways, the violence isn't that bad, some sexual stuff, and the language is very bad for a PG-13, Whig is why I rate it "iffy" for 12+. Not much to say positive-wise. Bottom Line: If you like (and I mean REALLY like, like, OBSESSED with like) Stephen King or suspended with really big twists, then go check it out. Otherwise, you probably wanna stay away from it. Or, if you haven't seen any Stephen King stuff, and like suspense, go check it out.
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AGE
I LOVED this movie
If you are someone who doesn't do well with violence this is not a great movie for you. But most of the violence is implied and not actually shown. As usual, Johnny Depp gives and amazing performance. I think that this is a GREAT movie for someone my age and I HIGHLY recomend it
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Kid, 12 years old
November 25, 2011
AGE
BORING!!!!!!!
too boring for anyone under 14 i think.
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AGE
Not for children 12 and below but give teens more credit
I loved it, it is so sad these days when people need their movies and literature spoon fed to them thre were two titles in the movie but in real life there are four titles as the movie was made from a book,books There was "Four Past Midnight", "Two Past Midnight"," Secret Window Secret Garden", and Finally the movie, "Secret Window" I found "Four After Midnight" and I have in my possession in my storage that I tripped gingerly across at a thrift store and remembered that it had another book title as well as a movie title and I actually found it. Strangely enough the title was something like three minutes after midnight and I had heard that the title originally had a different minute value after midnight than the book that I found in the thrift shop that contained that story. So there is even more substance to this movie than just simpltons views of oh it just has bad language an animal gets killed which was not my favorite part and people get killed. I think those lame reviews of a movie that they really don't know the background to should never be recycled unless they shred those that are not worthy of a really good suspense movie, and as always a brilliant performance by Johnny Depp. With just enough humor to relax you and catch youoff guard. If all people are going to do is rate it because they have kids not everyone has kids and the movie should stand on it's own merit and maybe they should go back to watching Tele Tubbies!
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AGE
5 stars for Johnny!
Johnny Depp did a great job in this movie
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AGE
Pretty good
This movie is very scary, there where parts where I was too scared to look. There is a part where the is a screwdriver in a dog's and a man's head and some other scary parts.
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| Studio: | Columbia Tristar |
| Director: | David Koepp |
| Cast: | John Turturro, Johnny Depp, Maria Bello |
| Genre: | Thriller |
| Run time: | 105 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | March 12, 2004 |
| DVD release date: | June 22, 2004 |
| MPAA rating: | PG-13 |
| MPAA explanation: | violence/terror, sexual content and language |
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