Whisper | REVIEW

"The devil's work is child's play." The slogan alone gives the movie a striking resemblance to The Omen, in which the devil's energy is manifested into a child who is born unto this earth to initiate the end of days. In rough terms, he's here to let all hell break loose. Whisper, however, centers around an eerie kid who's not so much interested in dominating the world, instead finds happiness in bringing hell to his kidnappers. Here's the non-spoilerish summary.

Max (Josh Holloway), a convicted felon, and his fiancee Roxanne (Sarah Wayne Callies) are contacted by an absent mastermind to group-up with a pair of strangers and commit the kidnapping of a young boy, David (Blake Woodruff), the son to one of the richest women in the state. The group keep the boy in a cabin deep in the woods and wait for ransom instructions. The boy, however, grows quite close to Roxanne, yet begins to cause distress amongst the other group members. As days go by, everyone realizes that there's more than meets the eye with this kid...he's actually Optimus Prime. Get it? More than meets the eye? Yeah? No? *Sigh*. I'm not sure if these kidnappers have watched The Omen or not but if it were me, I'd run at the first sight of a weird, extremely reserved kid who gets a boner by killing / dissecting birds and makes wolves run away like lil' puppies by just looking at them. Jeez....some people just don't get a clue, do they?

Whisper released after the summer-rush of 2007, and that's probably why I went to see it; because nothing good was showing. Hey, I'm not saying it's a bad movie. I'm just saying that the first time I knew of its existence was when I saw the poster an hour before I actually watched the movie. It was a spontaneous thing. Surprisingly, though, I liked what I saw and I still remember most of the movie today, almost 7 months later. Flicks like these normally fade off one's memory faster than Tokyo Drift's lifespan on the big screen. Very!

Now, I know many of you will say that this is a rip-off the Omen remake that came out in 2006. Agreed, it may have drawn inspiration from The Omen and was probably banking off the success of films that are 'end of world' related. But the truth is, apart from little kids having the devil in them or being the devil itself, Whisper has a somewhat original storyline and to me it was entertaining from start to finish. It isn't the scariest film ever, but neither is it boring. Blake Woodruff does a good job at being a weirdo kid, just like Sarah Wayne Callies does a great job at being hot. Oh, and of course there's Josh Holloway who looks like he'd just been picked up from LOST island and placed in this movie. He talks the same, dresses the same, heck I couldn't even remember his name by the end of the movie because I kept calling him 'Sawyer'. Nevertheless, he's a nice addition to the film. They should get this guy to play Gambit, don't you think?

All of the above being said, Whisper is not a movie I'd pick up on DVD. It's not that great. It's entertaining, it has its scares, jumps, and bumps, but it's just not a great movie. There's eeriness in there, there's mediocre acting, and the gang being isolated in a cabin does a fantastic job at giving the audience a sense of claustrophobia; someplace that's hard to escape from. Still, it's not a movie I'd watch more than twice unless I've completely forgotten how the story goes. It's one of those flicks that only works well the first time around, y'know? Rent it if you could. And did you know that the Greek God Of War is known as 'Ares'? Yeah, Ares. Oh, and if you wired a lemon to something, it would be known as a limewire. Hey, you could even name it a 'LimeWire'. Cool, huh? Those were just some nifty knowledge-bits that I like to give out now and then.
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Wrap : Whisper gets a 3.0 out of 5.0. I expected nothing from this movie but in the end I was entertained, I had a nice time watching it, and it was a fun movie in a season when most of what we get are movies centered around Santa Claus or comedies in which some guy (normally Tim Allen) has to replace Santa Claus. I love Christmas spirit, by the way, but I've seen Santa-replacement-related movies so many times that it's driving me crazy!