Great Film overall

Absolutely brilliant

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The first must-see film of the year.

I enjoyed this made-for-TV movie, partially because I liked Ashley Scott so much in Jericho. Wish she hadn't cut her hair. This movie doesn't have any gore or slashing, but relies on creepy clues and great lighting to manufacture the chill. The ending was unexpected despite the fact there were a sufficient amount of subtle clues. Perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon. There is also a strong possibility of romance between appealing characters, as a good LMN movie should provide. The heroine shows compassion for elderly characters, which I hope becomes a common trend. This compassion leads to some valuable information for her, demonstrating that courtesy always helps. The houses shown belonging to various characters are amazing, so we have to assume these are professional people called to jury duty, which is, in itself, unusual. The title,"Summoned" refers to the fact that citizens are "summoned" to jury duty, or in this case, summoned to an untimely death. Worth watching in my opinion.

Well SUMMONED is by no means as suspenseful nor as cleverly written as the 1967 Wait Until Dark. I compared the two to identify what is a really suspenseful and great movie and what is not. By now you have guessed that SUMMONED did not do it for me. Cuba Gooding Jr is credited as one of the stars but he plays a minor part and a dumb cop to boot. So if you are watching Summoned because you admire Cuba Gooding Jr's body of work, you will be even more disappointed. The two main actors Ashley Scott and Bailey Chase do a pretty good job trying to carry the movie but no matter how good the acting is, a poor script will create a poor movie, thus my 3 star rating. The plot surrounds a convicted murderer who is put to death and shortly after his execution the jurors start dying under mysterious circumstances. Most irritating for me was the continuous use of the violins as the background music to try and hold our suspense. If you fast forward and skip to the last 15 minutes of the movie you will get the gist of the plot and find out who the killer is. Not a very creative movie and not one that will hold most movie fans heart in their throat.....at least not like Wait Until Dark does.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. has been in some real dogs lately, so with "Summoned", I didn't expect much. What I didn't expect was for Mr. Gooding to make a couple of bland cameo appearances that added exactly nothing to the story. Any actor from Central Casting could as easily have filled this slot. And playing on Mr. Gooding's name to sell the film, well, considering his recent films, I'm not sure that was a brilliant idea either. Getting past that, this film had reasonable suspense but was of course disappointing since it made no sense whatsoever. In the beginning it appears that the spirit of an executed serial killer has come back to avenge himself on the 12 jurors who convicted him. But that's just trick photography. We eventually learn that a real live person is doing the killing. But why? Forget the many reasons you might dream up. There is no reason. Just senseless killing. For all that, the actors do a credible job and keep up the suspense. It's simply that the end and the entire exposition turn out to be so lame it makes you feel you've been cheated…again. And what in the world does the word "Summoned" have to do with this?

"Saw him again this afternoon. Seems to be stalking me wherever I go." Five years ago serial killer Simon Bourdias was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Now mysterious deaths are occurring to the members of the jury. Juror number 5 Laura Price (Scott) starts to investigate and begins to wonder if the deaths are a coincidence or something more mysterious then she ever imagined. I have to say that after the last Cuba Gooding movie I watched I was very worried that this one would be bad too. Not to spoil anything but he is in this for about 10 minutes. That said this movie was not that terrible. While it does have the feel of a made-for-TV movie it is watchable and I have seen much worse. The movie is a little slow at times and a little repetitive but it does keep you watching and interested all the way till the end. Overall, one of the better B-rate movies that I have seen in awhile. Nothing amazing but this is worth watching. I surprisingly give it a B.