NateWatchesCoolMovies Ever briefly get stuck in an elevator thats messing with you, malfunctioning and seems to almost have a mischievous mind of its own? That's the premise of Down, also known as The Shaft. It concerns an elevator in a huge residential/office building that has gone homicidally haywire. It traps, drops and tricks people no end, raising and lowering the interior temperature to dangerous effect and generally just being a great big meanie. No one seems so know what's going on with it though, especially the mechanic who installed it (Twin Peak's James Marshall). The incidents accumulate, attracting a perky tabloid reporter (Naomi Watts having a ball) who makes up all kinds of tall tales to explain the situation in sensationalistic terms. This infuriates the CEO of the elevator company (now there's a job title) played by a snarky Ron Perlman who gets a rant towards Marshall that walked in from a way better script (which leads me to believe it was the spawn of Perlman's legendary improv skills). There's also a cop played by Dan Hedeya who can't seem to figure it out wither. The truth is a lot more interesting than you might expect and has nothing to do with ghosts or spirits at all, but centers around a deranged research scientist (Michael Ironside, whacked out to kingdom come). It's not the least bit scary, but it's worth a watch simply for the fact that it's a movie about a damn elevator that kills people lol. Cujo and Christine ain't got nothing on this bitch. The scene where a gaggle of pregnant ladies enter the thing is just priceless in its blatantly gross out manner. Fun, fun stuff and great research to embarrass Watts with sometime down the road if you ever find yourself interviewing her on the red carpet hehe.

Brude_Stone This gets 2 stars instead of 1 because the production values were surprisingly good for such an otherwise poorly made movie. Terrible dialogue and plotting, and a story that...well, you just wonder why anyone put the amount of money into this movie it obviously took to produce it.Several named actors (Dan Hedeya, Ron Pearlman, Edward Herman) try manfully in their scenes to make the wordy dialogue work, as does a then little known Naomi Watts. I'd say I feel sorry for Ms. Watts, having to take roles like this while her best friend (Nicole Kidman) is doing Moulin Rouge! and other top films, but fortunately Naomi more than landed on her feet a year later with Mulholland Dr., which made her a star. We all have to pay our dues, I guess - this was part of Watts', and even Kidman had BMX Bandits in her past...

Neil Doyle The idea that a landmark building in NYC is having elevator problems of the most monumental sort is good for starters. But when it comes to the reason behind the elevator murders and mishaps, the writers had to be out to lunch.Some of the horrific happenings are well staged for maximum horror effect, but the characters are strictly one dimensional figures like puppets on a string. JAMES MARSHALL at least tries to give some depth to his leading role as an elevator technician who, midway through the story, accepts the help of an inquisitive newspaper reporter, NAOMI WATTS, to get to the bottom of the mysterious deaths on uncontrollable elevators.NAOMI WATTS must have been waiting for good roles to come along, but this was not one of them and she gives it no real conviction at all. The film was released shortly before the terrorist attacks on 9/11, lucky for the producers. After the attack, it's not likely a film of this sort would have been allowed to rattle the nerves of the already nervous New York City dwellers who witnessed an attack on their landmark buildings.RON PERLMAN, EDWARD HERRMANN and MICHAEL IRONSIDE are unable to give much gravitas to the absurd story, but there are several chilling scenes involving the elevator shaft that makes the whole thing at least worth a watch and some gruesome deaths by elevator.Strictly a below average horror film, enlivened by some good staging of key scenes but crying out for better plotting and dialog. The Ingmar Bergman joke between two of the elevator workers is an insult to any movie buff. At least Naomi Watts had KING KONG in her future.

DrSprayRimbaud Naomi Watts must've been a bit short on the rent when she agreed to sign up for this turkey. Without doubt, this was one of the most inane, farcical and annoying pieces of rubbish it has ever been my misfortune to watch.There isn't even one decent scare in this z-grade schlock-fest, and it becomes unintentionally humorous towards the end with the extremely low budget special effects. Having said that, if they had spent the minuscule amount of money they had put into the sfx into getting a decent scriptwriter/s, then this might have been a watchable film.The dialogue is awful enough to make good actors such as Ms Watts and Ron Pearlman look like nothing more than animatronic simulcra in search of a personality, and in general, the whole thing tries to come across as a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster to no avail.I want the 90 minutes of my life back that were thoroughly wasted on this crappy excuse for a film. If i had seen it at the cinema,I would not just have demanded my money back, i would have stormed into the projection booth and burned the film print.Awful. Truly awful.