In Premonition, Sandra Bullock plays an apathetic housewife whose world is turned upside down when she finds out that her husband has been killed in a terrible car accident. To make matters worse, she wakes up the next day to find out that the accident has not yet happened, that it was only a premonition. After seeing this film I believe that I too have had a premonition. What did I see in the future? I saw that this film will draw in a decent audience this weekend at the box office, then proceed to disappoint it.
Why is such a good turnout expected? Simply because there are plenty of ladies out there who are either tired of seeing nothing but family comedies (a la Wild Hogs) and blatant guy movies (300) filling their local Cineplex. And when they see that Sandra Bullock is starring, they immediately associate that with a sappy romantic storyline. Sadly they are in for a rude awakening when they discover that the closest this film gets to romance is the near rekindling of flames lost through years of stale married life between Bullock’s Linda and her soon to be dead husband Jim (played by Nip/Tuck’s Julian McMahon).
Now the lack of romanticism in this flick is not quite enough to steer audiences away, as it is being marketed as a psychological thriller about being able to see into the future and make moral decisions based on those future events. The only problem there is the fact that in order to successful execute a decent thriller, you must be able to lead your audience down a path, surprise them and then at least explain what the heck is going on by the time the credits roll. This is where Premonition fails miserably, with an ending that is not even worth spoiling because it is so bad. It is one of those movies that, when the credits do finally arrive, you are forced to look at the screen and say “Huh?”
And it is not bad enough that the ending had to make absolutely no sense, the entire rest of the movie has to follow suit. The story takes place over the course of a week (Sunday to Saturday), but the days are lived out of order by Linda. One day she wakes up and it is Thursday, the next day she wakes up and it is Monday. This is not altogether an uncommon way to tell a story – in fact it is quite a unique premise with the potential to be very interesting if done well. The only thing that can go wrong is that if you are not consistent then your story falls apart. In the case of Premonition, if you take all of the days and separate them, then put them in the right order they would make absolutely no sense. Certain plot points never quite connect from one scene to the next, causing us to become detached from the story and annoyed with its inconsistencies – and that just doesn’t make for a fulfilling night at the movies.
In the end there really isn’t a way for me to stop people from seeing this flick no matter how certain I am that they will be disappointed. It is a simple suspense flick absolutely devoid of a payoff – unless you consider utter confusion and a stale taste in your mouth to be a good payoff for a Sandra Bullock movie.
Final Grade: 
Premonition is in theaters on March 16, has a running time of 110 minutes and is Rated PG-13 for some violent content, disturbing images, thematic material and brief language.
Tagged: News
March 23rd, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Great review. You could not be more right. What a waste of a movie ticket. My son and I did just as you described…looked at the rolling credits and said..huh? Nothing connected or made sense. There was no significance to some of the events that took place in the movie. Wow…not quite sure how this made it on the big screen.
March 28th, 2007 at 9:07 am
me and my boyfriend watched this last night and actually thought it was quited good. although at the end it does leave you finkin ‘huh?’ in some ways it was easy to follow but nearer the end when you think you will get an answer to what has gone on, you dont!! quite confusing but still a good watch!!
July 19th, 2007 at 2:14 am
This movie was terrible - inconsistent and bland. The ending was so bad that I, too, wonder how this film made it to the big screen. If you’re going to spend a wad of millions on drivel, then clean up New Orleans first!
September 7th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Thanks for the review. I probably will not want see this now. Had to search for reviews before wasting my time…
December 20th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Boo-Hoo…..What and who is having the premonition. Linda or the audience? I am very agitated that I feel like I am watching one of those shows on PBS where foreign people are learning English,Dialect and comprehension. You watch the show and then discuss to see what each member got from it.I no coprendy this movie……I feel that many questions remain unanswered! I feel that the baby sends a message. Is the Husband really Dead or just outside loading the car. Oh that wouldn’t work. Okay that night of mad passionate you are going to die in two days sex session I guess produced the baby on the way so was the premonition that the Wife in her all knowing protectiveness knew that it was important on some Psychological level to sublimate the message to her spouse so as that he would sublimate to the insurance agent and triple the insurance policy and if so was that not in fact twisting fate….she got it together enough to save the afterlife bounty but never good enough to save the old man…so many questions to ponder in this movie and on a very psychic level I would really like to Shake the Writer out of his or her bed and give him or her a premonition that if they continue to write this way they will probably be very unsuccessful in Hollywood but maybe they were able to twist it enough to suck innocent paying consumers out of their bounty Premonitioning that they would see a movie that would at least have common sense….perhaps the writer was smoking “cens” when he or she wrote this waste of time. I am in agreement with the 1 and a half star out of 5 opinion. Please give me a manuel at the door to comprehend what the hell the message is in this piece of poinent garbage! Or was it just another slap in the face of the paying glutten tax paying popcorn goober eating public that is just too damn stupid and dumb to care. This movie warrents on criminal in that we may never fully understand what the message truly was and will forever sit with the conclusion that some things are just beyond our control. I for one would love to have the budget this aggrevating nonsense commanded and would then in turn and in kind reshoot the movie as a Community Service Gesture so that we would have a clearer understanding as to what the true meaning of this nonsense truly was and a better understanding why our Dear Sandra Bullock agreed to attempt to display it.