By Debbie Schlussel
Traditionally, the weekend after the holidays has few new releases and those are usually bombs. This weekend is no exception. The only new release is “One Missed Call”. “The Bucket List” and “There Will Be Blood” are opening in other parts of the country, today, but debuted on Christmas.” Read my reviews of both of those movies here.

“One Missed Call” was not screened ahead of time for film critics, usually a sign that the movie stinks. And this is no exception. (But I went and saw it, this afternoon, so I could review it for you.) When a movie has horrid “comedienne” Margaret Cho (she’s a cop in this one) in a serious role, you know it’s going to be bad. Starring Shannyn Sossamon and Edward Burns, it’s a sort of sci-fi thriller. But it’s hardly thrilling. Based on a Japanese horror movie, it’s silly, messy, and nonsensical.
The plot: One by one, college students and others receive calls and videos from the future on their cellphones. The messages and videos come from the cellphone of someone who just died mysteriously, but the voice is that of the recipient of the call. That person will be next–marked for death at the time and day of the call from the future. Soon, police detective Ed Byrne–whose sister is one of the victims–and Sossamon–a friend of several of the victims–team up to find out what is going on and who is the killer.
The plot is silly, the identity of the murderer even more preposterous, and the whole thing is a messy mishmash of stupidity. Mostly, it’s not scary. Just laughable. Plus, it breaks the cardinal rule of mysteries: there is absolutely no hint of the culprit anywhere leading up to the disclosure of the identity.
I like the sexy and smart-alecky Edward Burns, but some of his movies are so ridiculous, they are clearly done solely for a paycheck. And this is one of ’em. The only good thing about this movie is that it’s short–just under 1.5 hours. But it’s still that amount of time from your life that you are deducting and can never redeem.
“One Missed Call” is One Movie Best Missed. Skipworthy. Save your ten bucks.