I couldn’t help but feel a little tainted while watching the new movie release Hide and Seek.
I felt that something was missing. I felt that something in this movie was very, very familiar. By the time the movie ended, I felt like 20th Century Fox had fooled me.
Hide and Seek stars Robert De Niro as Dr. David Callaway, Dakota Fanning as his daughter Emily, Famke Janssen as Dr. Katherine and Elisabeth Shue as, well, Elizabeth.
The basic premise of the movie is this: After the untimely death of his wife, widower David Callaway and his daughter Emily move to a small, small town where nothing happens in the winter, and everything happens in the summer. His daughter finds some peace in an imaginary friend named Charlie.
But then weird things start to happen around the house that causes David to question if Charlie is imaginary or real.
To understand why I feel 20th Century Fox fooled me, I must take you back to last Tuesday, a couple of days before the movie came out.
I consider myself a movie buff and keep up with movie news on various web sites. A news story appeared announcing that the first time in 20th Century Fox’s 70-year career, they were shipping a movie without its final reel.
I was blown away. This was the company that has done all the Star Wars movies, Planet of the Apes, The Sound of Music, yada, yada, yada, and yet the secrets to these movies were shipped with the film. So why wasn’t this ending shipped?
But I was caught in hype – hook, line and sinker. I must admit that if it wasn’t for that, the movie would have been more enjoyable to watch.
However, I was caught in hype and while the ending was good one, it just didn’t live to the hype. So call me tainted because of the hype.
While watching Hide and Seek, I noticed something familiar about the way the story was progressing. The story moved at a slow speed with moments of sudden outbursts of action and thrilling moments. Then back to the slow pace of the story.
It didn’t hit me until I got into my car that the movie moved in the same fashion as an M. Night Shyamalan film. The only bad thing is, unlike M. Night, there were no clues to what the outcome was.
I feel like I’m bashing the movie, but that’s not the case. Like I said, I was tainted by a news story. The movie is fairly good. Dakota Fanning does a superb job playing a daughter going through a traumatic time. She has a very bright future ahead of her.
Robert De Niro does a good job as well, playing a father trying to connect to his daughter. The supporting cast – Dylan Baker, Melissa Leo and Robert John Burke – are decent and leave the viewer wondering what is going on.
The twist at the end was a plus and kept the movie at a fairly decent level.
In the end, I felt that the movie may have run 10-20 minutes too long, a clue or two should have been added, and the movie keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat a little too long.
Other than that Hide and Seek is a good movie with a good twist. The movie is very much in the spirit of M. Night Shyamalan; it just missed the target.

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