pal05052003
Suspenseful till the end. Despite only a few minutes on screen, Cuba Gooding stole every scene he was in. A mixture of legal thriller with the supernatural, I had no idea it was a made for TV movie. Some scenes are actually creepy. Great movie to enjoy on a Sunday. The score added tension to the scenes, and every minute you keep wondering what is going to happen next. The key strength to the movie is how the it manages to keep you hooked by keeping you guessing. First you guess whether the characters would make it to the end. Then you start to guess what actually happened that led to this story in the first place. The director slowly drops small hints throughout the scenes till the ending. It was refreshing to see a genuine mystery combined with the supernatural without any distracting special effects.
jkadmire
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.
Ed-Shullivan
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.
phd_travel
Lifetime adds it's touch to the supernatural thriller genre about former members of a jury who sentenced a man to death. One by one they start dying - is it a ghost or natural? It's moderately predictable in a reassuring lifetime way. It's also a bit weak especially in the romance part.Ashley Scott is in a lot of LMN movies these days and she is a bit painful to watch at times. There is an inadvertently funny part with James Hong. Poor Cuba, what are you doing in this kind of TV movie? Overall okay for a relaxing watch if you just want to unwind and switch off your brain for a couple of hours.
AD
