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Trust Weighted
OK
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5Trust Points
tomelce's Review
Summary - OK 2.5
A scene in which Amy Smart rips off her own jaw is the furthest “Mirrors” gets from run-of-the-mill supernatural mediocrity. Aside from that visually and technically grim scenario, Alex Aja’s most mainstream film to date finds the director slumming it as pal Franck Khalfoun did with 2007’s “P2.” This Kiefer Sutherland-starring debacle finds the “24” veteran attempting to unravel the mystery surrounding mirrors that suddenly, it seems, have become linked to a succession of ultra-violent deaths. When he sees his own reflection begin burning to death in one mirror, he feels all the pain and knows something deadly’s going on. Cue sequences in which a paranoid Kiefer paints over all the mirrors in his estranged family household, in-the-dark walks through hallways, and some pretty convoluted side-stories involving a nun formerly held in the mental hospital Kiefer now works at as a security guard (and the place where all this freaky shit is originating from, no less). “Mirrors” is preferable to films like “Prom Night” and the recent “Friday the 13th” but it still feels disappointingly neutered when compared with director Aja’s previous outings — 2004’s masterful “Haute Tension” and 2005’s “The Hills Have Eyes.” Sutherland, meanwhile, gives a passable, if somewhat uncommitted, performance as “Mirrors” jitters towards an ending that ups the ante — threatening Sutherland’s character’s relatives with death, putting he himself in increased danger — and packs a jarring final twist. “Mirrors” takes an idea already covered in an episode of “Goosebumps” and tries to give it an effective makeover. The film, however, is a silly, messily constructed disappointment.