Sometimes a film comes along that baffles everyone, garnering such a low critical Rotten Tomatoes rating that it becomes a morbid curiosity to know exactly what went wrong.
One such film is Premonition, starring Sandra Bullock as a woman attempting to save her husband from an impending car crash that she’s foreseen.
While it’s never been reclaimed as an underrated gem — and for good reason — it’s still worth a watch just to see how bad it could be.
Premonition is now streaming on Netflix, and we’ve built a defense for why it still deserves a viewing.
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It’s Not “So Bad It’s Good,” But It Is “So Bad It’s Wacky”
Premonition starts on the day that Linda Hanson (Bullock) discovers her husband has died the previous day, and the narrative sees her going back and forth between living with him dead and living with him alive. The first day he’s dead, the next day he’s back, and so on. If this premise didn’t sound ridiculous already, there’s more where that came from.
Because of the weird, time-hopping way the story is told, there are numerous plot holes and inconsistencies that the filmmakers seem to hope audiences just won’t notice — including one involving Linda’s daughter crashing through a plate glass window. But perhaps more confusingly is the fact that not only is the film told non-linearly for us, it is also a scrambled sequence of events for Linda. So, basically, everyone is confused, and everyone is annoyed. At some point, Linda ends up in a mental hospital, where she uses her supernatural powers to commit numerous crimes. It’s dumb, but sometimes it’s fun to be annoyed at a dumb movie.
Sandra Bullock Gives a Great Performance Despite Everything Else
When has Sandra Bullock ever given a bad performance? I mean, she did win a Golden Raspberry for her performance in All About Steve, which I think means more than if she hadn’t been nominated at all. Ultimately, it’s Bullock who carries Premonition, anchoring the poor narrative and boring execution with her committed emotional performance that gives weight to her character and story.
Because in spite of everything else that’s wrong with the film, Bullock successfully conveys a maelstrom of emotions: fear, confusion, grief and heartbreak, and she does so authentically. Even when a scene might not be working, it’s Bullock’s ability to portray rage and distress that keeps everything grounded. It’s the same emotional range that would ultimately clinch her an Academy Award immediately after accepting her infamous Razzie. If nothing else works, Bullock works. That should be a motto of some kind.
It Will Inspire You to Watch Other, Better Movies
If you end up watching Premonition and absolutely nothing works for you, and the film amounts to nothing more than a colossal waste of time, and you feel angry and cheated, at the very least, you can’t say that it didn’t allow you to have a greater appreciation for and desire to watch similar, much better films. Premonition can’t really exist without films like Groundhog Day, Memento and The Sixth Sense, all of which are classics.
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You might be reading this and thinking to yourself, “Why would I go through the trouble of watching a bad film when I could just skip it and go straight to Memento?” If you do that, you’re missing the point entirely. Watching Premonition will make Memento hit so much better — kind of like chasing a bitter, terrible shot with a delicious swig of pickle juice.
Stream Premonition now on Netflix.
