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Produced by 

Music by 

Cinematography by 

Film Editing by 

Casting By 

Production Design by 

Costume Design by 

Makeup Department 

Production Management 

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director 

Art Department 

Sound Department 

Special Effects by 

Visual Effects by 

Stunts 

Camera and Electrical Department 

Casting Department 

Costume and Wardrobe Department 

Editorial Department 

Music Department 

Transportation Department 

Other crew 

Thanks 

Good example on how to make a bad movie

Author: shortcourtking-227-550962 from United States
30 November 2011
 

This is my first review on IMDb and this movie forced me to write it. Unfortunately I had to give it at least one star, zero stars is not an option. Within the first 5 minutes my wife and I looked at each other and said when will this be over. From the get go the movie was boring,the acting poor and the editing was completely atrocious. At almost every camera angle change both inside and outside the car they were on a different road. If you happened to notice they were always driving on a on-ramp or off-ramp never on a highway. I feel bad spending $2 of my Netflix money on this thing. Enjoy, may be a cult classic in 30 years. I am shocked that Maria Bello would be in a movie like this.

14 out of 23 people found the following review useful:

Lame Garbage

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
26 December 2011

The divorced Lorraine Burton (Maria Bello) is an insecure woman that raises her seven year-old son Chad (Connor Hill) alone and without money. Her ex-husband Gary (Jeff Joslin) is a former military that went in court martial and presses Lorraine to take Chad for him.

One day, Lorraine stops her car in a gas station after her therapy to buy frozen pizzas for Chad and her. When she returns, the bank robber Roy (Stephen Dorff) carjacks them and heads to Tijuana, Mexico with Lorraine and Chad. Along their journey, Lorraine tries to protect Chad from the psychopath Roy.

"Carjacket" is lame garbage, with a stupid story, awful screenplay and a collection of clichés. The plot is so ridiculous that does not worth to spend my time writing about this crap. My vote is one (awful).

Title (Brazil): "Sequestro Relâmpago" ("Quicknapping")

5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

Complete load of rubbish don't bother watching

Author: hangallpoliticans from United Kingdom
27 January 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

wow carjacked sucks ! rubbish script, crap story, boring story, really really boring story. Watch a good crime film like " the getaway " with Steve Mcqueen, but don't waste your time on carjacked it sucks PS ending is idiotic, the baddies run over by a car so hard he'd be dead no question...but no he gets up still able to hold a gun ! this had to be written by someone with maggots for brains and an IQ of 25.

How do film makers decide to make a film like this ? who in their right mind could have read the script and said yes thats a good story ? if you want to be entertained do not watch this awful crap.

98% of the scenes in this film are of 2 or 3 people driving in a car..we see nothing of the scenery they would travel past making this some of the worst cinematography I've ever had the misfortune of watching, i cant warn you enough to stay clear of this stinker of a movie

4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:

Avoid like the plague

Author: xpanther2005 from Ohio, USA
6 December 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This is one awful movie. The writing & directing should win this year's Razzie's Award. The actors can't be blamed; except for taking part in this crap. Even the set locations are bad. I mean, supposedly they're on the highway... yet it always look like they're in-town on a 25-40 MPH roads! And the ending; now that's the fart on the top of that mountain of crap.

Nothing is believable, from the elementary school bus at a truck stop at midnight(!!) to the nonchalant attitude of the victim and her son towards the carjacker to the cop who tell a kidnapped woman about the state laws regarding child custody instead of trying to help her(??)..

So be warned, your time will be wasted for nothing.

3 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

Don't waste the electricity of your DVD player to play this movie.

Author: yourboycal from Canada
3 December 2011

This is a great film for exactly what your typical air head blondes would do in such situations.

I would love to meet the director of this movie and try and understand how he would ever approve such a disaster.

This movie has many scenes that will make you go WTF? Unbelievable events , broken story .

Watched it thought hey it would be a great movie , but the events that unfold , the countless blonde moments where she had a chance to deal with the situation .

Perhaps it should be called When a blonde is car jacked. Because the level of stupidity in this movie clearly reflects that.

I would not advise anyone to waste their time on this movie. I have no clue who authorized such a disaster bs movie. Don't waste your time with this. I gave it 2-10 because it had a good theme. But failed in performance and the situations it portrayed. Unbelievable garbage .

5 out of 12 people found the following review useful:

Total Garbage

Author: Kevin from United States
30 December 2011

45 minutes in and the only thing picking up any speed was the car. 28dayslateranalysis.com says "One of the more exciting thrillers to come out this year!" Seriously?!? Apparently whoever they got this tag-line from doesn't get out much...AT ALL! Don't waste your time...it be will 89 minutes (if you can stomach it through) of your life you'll never get back. Wow, IMDb won't publish my review because I don't have 10 lines...really?...this movie doesn't rate more than a few lines. It will take me longer to figure out what to say about this pathetic excuse for a movie than the 45 minutes it took me to determine it wasn't worth giving it the other 44 minutes to finish watching.

9 out of 12 people found the following review useful:

Acting and Ending Issues too much to swallow

Author: deirdre-209-643722 from United States
10 November 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Though I love her in Prime Suspect, Maria's portrayal of Lorraine was much too annoying and felt very forced and unnatural, so I never developed much sympathy for her and never really liked her. Dorf did a good job with the material he had, though. I believed his character completely. The movie keeps your interest enough to keep going to the end. Alas, the ending was bad icing finishing off a somewhat too bland cake *ugh* You feel like you are missing the real ending and they just cut right to a "twist" that the producers really felt was the highlight of the film ... but really isn't. If Lorraine had been written and developed differently, perhaps I would have felt more satisfied and enjoyed the end twist as much as the filmmakers did ;)

0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

Laughably contrived and rather insulting to the viewer's intelligence

Author: callanvass from victoria b.c canada
22 August 2013

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

As an awful as a movie can be sometime, I'd like to somewhat use this analogy. Carjacked Is seriously like a bad train-wreck, despite how progressively worse it gets throughout the duration, you can't help but finish the disaster all the way through. Carjacked is certainly never dull, but it has a plethora of problems. Right away we are entered into the heroine's life (Bello) and the sight isn't pretty. We are given snippets throughout the film of her insecurities, her faults, but it never really gives us any reason to care about her, other than she's broke and a single mother who's in tough financially with a jerk of an ex husband. As a matter of fact they try to make her come across as sympathetic, but in reality all they managed to do was make her a whiny and rather unlikable heroine who commits way too many stupid mistakes in tough scenario's, The criticism should not be directed towards Bello because she gives it her best shot, but the obstacle of working against a bad script is too much to overcome. The relationship with her son felt forced and unnatural, and in a movie that type of relationship is vital to a movie's success, and they throw in the ex husband scenario for further dramatic effect to no avail. Stephen Dorff gives a laughably over the top performance which is largely uninspired. He sits there with his jacket, smokes cigarettes, looks cool, but he comes across as annoying and rather pretentious. The movie doesn't give us near enough information on why he is the way he is, as like a lot of the character development. Connor Hill is predictably annoying and rather unlikable as the kid. I didn't care for his nonchalant attitude towards the occurring events happening in the film or his hypocritical attitude (The moment when he gives Dorff the middle finger on the bus is a perfect example of this) but my main problem with Carjacked is that it grows abundantly more idiotic as it goes along. The finale had me howling in unintentional laughter. I'm guessing they wanted the big bang for the finale, but they failed miserably with a terribly over the top and unbelievable finale.

Final Thoughts: Maria Bello is far too talented to be slumming in this type of stuff. Carjacked is far too stupid and silly for its own good. I wouldn't even recommend this to B-Movie junkies, you can do something much more worthwhile with your time, like Maria Bello can with her career.

3/10

0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

"A whole other class of something else"

Author: amahlanand from Australia
9 May 2012

When thinking of an 'escape' type film, the things that would generally come to mind would be intrigue, mystery, schemes and deadlocks. It is a pity then that 'Carjacked' contains none of these. In an atmosphere and complex that fluctuates from amicable chatting to sudden gun pointing for the majority of the film, the whole production, the events and the characters seem either too far fetched or too devoid of life to be believable.

Usually an actress with personality, Maria Bello portrays an inherently imploded single mother struggling with life. Her character remained detached whilst her emotions were too difficult to read. The hijacker, who was really responsible for carrying the film, acted by Stephen Dorff, is not menacing and instead of a cunning bank robber, is presented as a simple petty thief, which does take away credibility, even if his demeanour is a dangerous cool. The dialogue between the two protagonists comes across as very unnatural, so much so that the movie may well have been better off without it.

Whilst watching, you will likely find yourself throwing your hands in the air multiple times wondering how Bello's character Lorraine could not escape rather than find yourself absorbed in the intrigue of the plot. Dorff may well have been referring to the film as well when he refers to Lorraine as 'a whole other class of something else'. Although, he forgot to add, 'in blandness'.

20 out of 33 people found the following review useful:

Horrible

Author: lvslezak-211-788721 from Pittsburgh
12 November 2011

I like realistic dramas/thrillers; I like to imagine that the movies that I watch could really happen in real life. This movie was so far-fetched that I found myself yelling at the television due to the lead's stupidity. "Just call the police, lady!, Just call the damn police" Without going into detail, I got sick of the movie about 45 minutes into it... The characters were very weak, and the plot was horrible.

I could have written myself if someone had asked me...I really can't imagine why people can rate this movie higher than a two or three star...Highly NOT recommended.

Séduit par la présence de Naomie Watts j'ai perdu mon temps en regardant ce...cette

in french ça s'appelle :L' ASCENSEUR (NIVEAU 2) 

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Wow... uh, where to begin...

Author: michael h from Atlanta, GA
7 July 2008
 

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Just for kicks, let's pretend you're a disgraced military scientist. You want to create "bio-machines" that incorporate mechanical devices with human intelligence. However, your first attempts were always kind of hard to control and turned out a little, well, homicidal. So the military fired you... but of course you want to continue your research. Well why not continue your dangerous research on an elevator in a busy, New York skyscraper that's open to the public? Seems like a good plan. What could possibly go wrong?

That's the plot of this one. The elevator kills people because it is partially powered by human brain cells and is apparently evil for no good reason. Yep. Sound scary? Sound at all plausible? Didn't think so.

This might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The shocking thing is that Naomi Watts shows up as a newspaper reporter trying to get the scoop on the "killer elevator". What on earth is a real star doing in this thing? I realize it was earlier in her career, but one would think her standards were better than this. Did she read the script before taking the job? Ron Perlman shows up as well; maybe he failed to check out the script too.

The dialogue is so bad it's hard to even laugh at it. The acting is hard to stomach. This movie just goes to show that a bad script and bad direction can make any actor look terrible. James Marshall is particularly laughable as the leading man. He looks like a high school drama student trying to remember his lines for the big play.

The premise is so strange. Of all the things to experiment on, why would the scientist choose an elevator? Do we really need a super-intelligent elevator? With such a bad premise, one can certainly imagine how the half-baked plot plays out.

It's hard to think of one good thing about this movie. It did make me laugh occasionally with its overall amateurish look and terrible dialogue. However, it's not a fun, campy B-movie. Down (aka The Shaft) is just plain boring, formulaic and doesn't make much sense.

Elevator from hell

Author: thomas stavland from Norway
3 June 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Okey, where to begin... This is one of the worst films ever made.. I cant believe this movie ever got the budget it needed to get made.

Spoilers!!

It is about an elevator who kills the people who rides it. And the only way to "Kill" or destroy the elevator is to destroy its hart.. i repeat, its HART.. The story is bad, the acting is bad and the movie should be listed as a comedy because with the storyline in the movie, it is very hard to take it seriously as a horror film.

I do not recommend anybody to watch this because its awful.. Just awful..

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

It's like the Godfather if the Godfather would have stunk

Author: "Sparky" Fike (meatwadlives@hotmail.com) from Oakland, Maryland, United States
14 March 2006

"Down" is the "story" of an elevator shaft that is killing people. I watched it under the thought that it was somehow related to the movie "Shaft" with Richard Roundtree boy was I wrong.

Let me start with what this movie does right. Now that that's out of the way how this movie strayed into the land of "From Justin to Kelly"It does everything a bad Horror movie does nudity at the beginning for no reason, more cursing than a ship full of sailors, and the death scenes are lame that add nothing to the movie.

The story is like class on the "Jerry Springer Show" non-existence. At first I think the killer is Indians, Germans, or Dolphins. Yes dolphins. Flipper hates big buildings. This move tries to build suspense but try after try just left me disappointed not shocked.

The acting was the things "Razzies" are made of. During the movie I wished Sinbad would come and save the movie.

To summarize I don't know what is sadder this movie or the fact that I sat though it. If you have an hour and fifty-five minutes to kill by watching this movie please don't.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

Pure stupidity

Author: rodjon from Stockholm, Sweden
8 October 2003

This has got to be the worst movie I've witnessed for years! I thought John Carpenter's "Ghosts of Mars" would hold that nomination for quite some time, but this romp makes Carpenter's movie shine. Pure waste of time. Avoid at all cost!

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Did This Movie Really Get Made?

Author: Jonathan Funke from NYC
31 July 2006

So let's play Management Consultant Interview and do some quick math. Let's assume 15 million folks in the LA area, each of whom writes at least a screenplay every two years, and, what, like, another 15 mil around NYC...let's say only one in three in NY actually spends every waking moment writing screenplays, but that they're a lot more disciplined about it -- so say one per year.

So that's, like, 12.5 million screenplays PER YEAR -- and they decided to make this one? No new ideas, no script to speak of, no OLD ideas, no obedient tribute to past flicks in the genre, no budget in evidence, no clever way to say "look, ma-no budget!" -- and not even awful in that fun-to-watch way.

Check out my other reviews. I prefer to give praise where it's due. This was a straight-up waste all around.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

The elevator isn't the only thing wrong here!

Author: thewakinghour from Japan
2 March 2006

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Now, a personal note, I will not write truly negative reviews, no matter how bad the film. I really am astounded at the people who take the time to write about why they think "Citizen Kane" or "Ikiru" or whatever isn't simply "over-rated" but "awful" or "stupid" enough that they have to warn other people NOT to watch them.

Actually, I don't even understand people bother to rate a movie under a "5," even if they don't write a comment.

That said, any "1" from me is meant to reflect an odd sort of applause!

This is a really, really, really bad movie. In the best sense!

The premise, of a bio-engineered elevator system designed by an obsessive ex-military weapons program mad scientist, is, well, pretty lame, however laudably weird, and the script and the acting manage to press every possible drop of the lameness by pretty much every bad-movie device possible: over-acting; poorly-conceived characters with insufficient motivation; ridiculous, yet lame, stereotyping; dull use of excessive profanity; ridiculous direction and cinematography.

In other words: you name it; it's bad.

The final perfection of the lameness here (and, no, I rarely use that particular word in general conversation) is that the monster - some sort of bio-engineered living humanoid braincell larva - is killed at what is supposed to be the climax of the film, before revealing whatever-the-hell form it was about to metamorphose into!

You don't even get to see the monster!?!?!!!

If you have time that's really in need of killing, and this happens to be on TV, watch it. At least until you find something better to do!

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Waste of time and money

Author: Rena from here
6 March 2002

Bad movies either become cult movies very quickly or sink into oblivion. I hope this one will never be heard of again. I voted a clear 1 out of 10. It's so bad, it's hilarious (all for the wrong reasons of course). Oh, by the way: Mr Dick Maas, please, for the sake of all movie-loving people think about opting for a new career. Like selling cars, or refrigerators, or shoes for that matter ... Why oh why did anybody ever invest any money in your script when there are so many wonderful, brilliantly written scripts out there just waiting to be turned into films!

3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

Was this a comedy?

Author: miceli123 from United States
3 October 2006

I can't comprehend this movie. It was so ridiculous that I thought it might be a parody, but as time wore on, I realized that there was no sense of humor to it. There were some reasonably big names and it seemed like there was a lot of money behind it. But a horror movie based on a murdering elevator? Just don't go in there.

I also noticed that many of the performers looked downright embarrassed. There is a certain dead eyed expression an actor gets when they realize that they are involved in a real piece of garbage. Just pause this movie once or twice during a close up and you'll see exactly what I mean.

This was just painful in every respect. I can't believe that this was done by professionals. This was basically a movie written by an elevator repairman and meant for the enjoyment of other elevator repairmen. EVERYONE else should stay the hell away.

3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

This movie is so insipid it will blow your mind.

Author: herrtitenfisch02 from United States
6 May 2006

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Holy crap! Who is in charge of green-lighting horror movies these days, a cage full of retard, blind chimps or Hollywood cheesmoes who don't care about quality as long as they make another million? I hope, for humanity's sake, that it is the former because this movie is so stupid, so retarded, so insane, that I can't imagine a room full of people saying "Yes, this movie is good. I'll will help produce it." Unless that dialog was followed by "I am also very drunk and high on crack and have only seen half this movie."

Here's the story- haunted elevator shaft and weird things happen in the elevator and around the building. What's causing it? Ancient Indian burial ground? Vengeful ghost of someone who died in the elevator and whose demise was covered up? Satanist? Aliens? Westinhaus the evil Babylonian god of elevators? Nope. It's a "high tech" new elevator maintenance system that runs off of living human tissue. For no reason. I think they may have mentioned why once or maybe twice in the movie but I was too busy laughing at the cheesiness or crying at the fact that this movie was made to pay close attention. Here come or brave heroes, the New York City elevator maintenance men. I'm not kidding. Our hero- macho- renegade- rag- tag- elevator- maintenance- man- guy investigates the spooky things that happen and finds out that the elevators were invented by some big- shot Yale/ Harvard crazy introvert who was kicked out of the ranks of military engineers because he did spooooky things with technology and living human tissue. So he made the obvious jump from military hardware to elevator technician. Oh, and he's evil. They never explain why, guy's just a bastard, I guess. And to help save the day is Naomi Watts who is apparently trying desperately to chuck all her dignity as an actress right down the toilet. She plays one of those dumb blondes with big breast that dresses like a twelve- year old slut but is also somehow a college- educated feminist with the clichéd radical 'I'm not going to take crap from my male superiors' attitude. Oh, and she has the same exact job that she had in 'The Ring' - the dashing investigative reporter. Figures, that.

Listen- I'm not going to bore on anymore details. Just know this: if your in the mood for a movie that is so incredibly badly retarded it's funny skip this movie and go rent 'Deep Blue Sea' or 'Leprechaun.' If your in the mood for a movie that is so beyond bad to the point that it hurts your head thinking how such utter crap like this ever even got written down on paper and is so stupid it's depressing, however, then this film might be up your alley but you will still hate yourself for renting it. And if you do rent it, try to get someone else to pay for it. What a piece of crap. Oh, yeah one other thing: You were probably wondering this and yes, the movie does play Aerosmith's 'Love in an elevator.' Twice. Ouch.

4 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

What the #!***!

Author: nycrules
5 December 2005

It was actually disturbing how bad this film was. It wasn't even bad in a funny way and at times I wondered if the filmmakers intended certain scenes to be. Either way, they need professional help. I was most disturbed by the fact the beautiful and talented Ms. Watts was in this. Boy did the next object of King Kong's obsession come a long way from this pile of stool! I couldn't believe she was in this wretched mess but even in such grotesque toxic waste she shined through. I couldn't make any sense out of much of anything in this film. Another part that disturbed me was the reference to Bin Laden and the eerie 9/11-like feel during the President's speech. Was 9/11 the reason this cinematic fiasco went straight to video or was it maybe Ms. Watts' agent who made sure it was kept pretty hush hush. Of course now Ms. Watts is about to appear in King Kong, the movie pops up again on cable. This travesty deserves to get "THE SHAFT" and flushed "DOWN" the toilet!

Séduit par la présence de Steve Buscemi et Elisabeth Hurley...etc

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What a lousy movie!

Author: oldsenior from Los Angeles, CA
7 July 2005
 

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The director/writer should of gotten a co-writer, because he trys to get to some-where in his film, but falls short, maybe someone elses imput would have made the difference between a lousy script and a funny movie. I've seen Leary on different talk shows and he always seems to be on the edge, ready to explode, an angry person, always having to put some one down to try to be funny and make a joke. Maybe if he smiled a bit in this movie it might have seemed like more of a comedy, (talk about a grim dude). The writing was just poor and the direction at least in the fast food place was missing something, clumsily staged. And what-about the young girl getting away with attempted murder (we're supposed to believe she's repented (she crys) and there-fore pays her dues to society). What's the title mean? What's the eyeball mean? Why is the hero? smoking dope (I guess the director does), is that cool? Hurley's secretary could have been a bit more animated, instead of being a zombie, and made a more interesting character. Dimitri the cop was a pretty sharp dresser, his clothes and Leary were by some big time designer, although you'd never know it by Leary's wardrobe. Hurley always looks great and Bucimmi's character could have been better realized, what he had was nothing. In fact the whole story could have been better realized, tighter and connected somehow. Maybe the next effort will be better and not cost me $5.00 for the DVD.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

An absolute disgrace

Author: xshitz from Majenta supersonic jet
5 February 2004

Wow, sometimes renting a film on a whim can lead to utter disaster. DOUBLE WHAMMY attempts to cover the entire emotional spectrum, and misses at every turn. Homicide is used for comic effect, homicide is used for dramatic effect; homophobia is used for comic effect. Dennis Leary is following Eddie Murphy's path of having once been a genuine talent, trapped in a career of schlock and crap. Elizabeth Hurley is Elizabeth Hurley -- she looks good, but just won't stop trying to "act."

Don't let the reasonably decent cast fool you, as it fooled me. Steve Buscemi is terrible in this, Dennis Leary and Chris Noth are awful, Elizabeth Hurley is Elizabeth Hurley, and Luis Guzmán not good. It's not their fault -- they have next to nothing to work with.

Pass this one by.

5 out of 9 people found the following review useful:

Hard to believe...

Author: memattohyeah from San Francisco
10 June 2004

It's hard to believe that 1) this film got a release at all. It's not funny. In fact it's flat and very amateurish. 2) I can't believe that this is made by the same guy who made Living In Oblivion and The Real Blonde. Both of those films are funny and insightful.

Really great films. Double Whammy seems slapped together, full of half-baked ideas. A real let down. I had read all the bad reviews posted here but I usually like to make up my own mind about films. Especially when the filmmaker has made such great films before this one. You can believe all the bad things you hear about this one. A total waste of time!!

Not Funny

Author: SanteeFats from United States
14 November 2013

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I watched this movie because it was titled a comedy and Denis Leary had the lead. I really like Leary as an actor but not in all his roles and this is one of the don't likes. This film was not even close to being funny unless there was some black comedy aspect that I just missed. Leary is a detective who gets caught is a couple of bad press pieces because of a bad back. He goes to a chiropractor and gets it corrected. They end up hooking up of course. The supers daughter wants a tattoo (way under age). told no she goes to two local idiots. They misunderstand and think she wants them to off Papi. They knife him in the back. This leads to Leary finding the bad guys or they find him? Anyway Leary shoves one out a window and while fighting the other one the knife that is stuck in the ceiling falls and sticks in the bad guys back which kills him. I have a big problem with that . The knife blade is a very wide one and goes in perpendicular to the ribs. No way. The blade would have bounced off the ribs coming down like that. Oh well it fits with the rest of this not funny movie.

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

Why do they keep on making movies like this one?!

Author: Timo Taipale from Helsinki, Finland
21 April 2003

Double Whammy, the title already says everything that there is to this film. There is not much into this movie: poor acting combined with lousy story. Double Whammy is the second movie I have seen that stars Elisabeth Hurley and Denis Leary and although this is not as bad as the first one "Bad Boy" it still one of the most useless movies ever.

The movie provides some interesting possibilities but none of these are ever really realised. For example: the movie genre. It is not a comedy (I did only laugh once) but it is not a suspense either. The murder commited is not solved in the end and what about the charachter Jerry Cubbins (played by the great Steve Buscemi). He has problems with his sexuality and maybe they could have made some funny scenes based on that.

In the end, this is an uninteresting movie with shallow characters. Why do they keep on making these movies and why do I keep on renting them...

4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:

Sundance letdown.

Author: SIKORSKIB
3 October 2001

Why this played Sundance I'll never know. Two-bit writing and one of the most cliche-ridden movies I've ever seen. The only cleverness in the movie is that the wannabe filmmakers are racking their brains trying to come up with bitchin' scenes and dialogue for their "big" movie. Maybe the writer was showing his own process for this movie. I want my money back.

3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:

Incredibly disappointing -- awful

Author: ken c. from Windermere, Fla.
24 May 2003

I wondered why I had never heard of this film before stumbling onto it in a video store. I mean, with Denis Leary, Elizabeth Hurley, Steve Buscemi and Luis Guzman in it, it sounded like a can't miss.

Sorry. It missed. Badly. Incredibly badly.

Not funny. Stupid plot. Horrid acting.

If not for a couple of make-out scenes between Leary and Hurley (during which she flashes a little . . . . ), this film would not even warrant the 4 that I gave it.

Boring, all-over-the-place script, poor performance from Leary

Author: Finn Renard from Spain
9 February 2014

I am a big fan of Liz Hurley and not at all a fan of D. Leary. That being said, I didn't expect much from this movie, and I didn't get much. The story is all over the place, with sub plots that has little meaning to the main plot. The lack of quality in the writing affects all the main characters, which means only Hurley, Buscemi and Luis Gúzman pass the grade.

We got drama, crime, romance, and comedy. As for the romance, Leary is far from likable, and the relationship with his chiropractor is just not romantic nor credible. Apart from the aspiring film writing neighbors played by Donald Faison and Keith Nobbs, there is nothing funny at all in this movie.

See this movie if you want to see the always beautiful Liz Hurley. Otherwise stay away. Leary should stick to stand-up, but I guess he ran out of Bill hicks routines to recycle.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

90 minutes of bad luck?

Author: Enchorde from Sweden
18 October 2008

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Recap: When Ray Pluto steps into the Bun Burger he doesn't know that his bad luck has just begun. Suddenly a crazy man with a rifle crashes through the window and starts shooting people. A perfect moment for detective to step in and gain fame (and fortune?). But a bad back prevents him from raising his own gun, and he trips up, falling and dropping his gun. Instead of him a 10-year-old kid becomes the hero, and he becomes "Loser Cop". After that Ray struggles to regain his confidence and reputation, but never seems to catch a break. There is just bad luck around...

Comments: "Translated" into Bad Luck in Swedish, that title does make a little more sense than Double Whammy that I still can't really connect to the movie. However, Bad Luck seems to describe it better since I felt that I was in bad luck that it didn't end sooner.

This movie suffers badly from a weak script. Supposed to be a comic drama it is neither. There are no real fun moments, and no real suspense, no development at all to speak of. The movie consists of a string of events, which are mostly weakly connected to each other and sometimes seem to happen at random. It also contains a few rather pointless sub-plots never explored, the biggest one consists of two guys trying to write a movie (maybe experiences of the script-writer?) that is mostly there to make the end work and bring some comic twists during the movie. But unfortunately it just doesn't. The most ignored sub-plot is the prior loss of Pluto's wife and daughter which is just hinted at, and if explored could had a real impact. Now it is just lost and pointless.

So, even though the movie casts a few good actors there is not much to hope for. Denis Leary is good when he has something to work with, but that doesn't happen here. Steve Buscemi might be one of the most underrated actors out there, but sadly his character is just peripheral in this movie and he never gets the opportunity to do anything. Donald Faison has shown subsequently to be a great comic actor in Scrubs, but is able to show little here. The movie also sports known actors like Elizabeth Hurley, Chris Noth and Luiz Guzman but they seem out of luck too. Actually all characters except for Ray Pluto, like Buscemi's Jerry, is just peripheral. And it is hard to make and carry an entire movie alone. I don't blame the actors, I blame the script.

Not much to hope for really, a few bright moments, but not much more.

4/10

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

Hey, it's that guy!

Author: aqua_swing from Canada
26 March 2005

Ah, Denis Leary movies. They're always up for either fun and silly (The Ref, Suicide Kings), the kind of movie to make you nauseous (Two if by sea, Operation Dumbo Drop), or completely unexpected (Final). When you mix all three of them you tend to think you're bound to get something good, but alas, you get disappointed. Here's where Double Whammy sets in. This is one of those kind of movies that has no plot and is filled with watchers saying "Hey, it's that guy!", and that's probably the most fun you get out of this one, save the occasional laugh where-be there are a bunch of things I've never seen in a movie before. But the rest of the movie was complete and utter boredom. It was like when you watch Quantum Leap and go "AUUUGH another lame part!", only this was the whole movie. Howabout I add in the fact that other than the main two characters, there was NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! The only reason it got two stars was because the chemistry between Hurley and Leary made me feel okay.

Séduit par le casting (Anthony Hopkins,Rachel Weisz,Jude Law) Pas pu aller au bout

*

*

How could Hopkins, Law, Weisz do this??!

Author: michal_ordogh from Slovakia
23 July 2012
 

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

You fall under impression that you are watching 2 movies cut into one of terribly uneven quality.I can not express how shocked I was, hearing Slovak (not Slovakian-as you hear in the movie) language. Two Slovak girls,with NO ACTING skill, one of which used to host a TOP10 on national TV is now showing her breasts and works to empower a myth that all Central European girls are whores.The sidekick girl,her "mission" in the movie remains a mystery. ONE BIG BIG FAILURE: you can predict everything in this movie. A cured rapist will not have sex, 'cos he is cured, a Slovak whore will try to rob,a going-to-be-unfaithful husband will change his mind, a Muslim in love with his Russian assistant fires her to resolve his personal issue. Conclusion: bad image of my country supported, two movies cut into one, all PREDICTABLE. Avoid this movie!!!

13 out of 22 people found the following review useful:

Blah Movie has some good performances--but absolutely nothing to tie any of them together

Author: Matthew Stechel (mateob25@aol.com) from United States
23 August 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Interconnected story lines of various people's lives criss-crossing across the globe film in the vein of Babel--doesn't have much to either recommend or even keep you watching once you're a good half hour or so in it. I kind of liked Anthony Hopkins' performance and i kind of thought Ben Foster's storyline was interesting--at least at first since it doesn't really go anywhere after the big reveal of his character---i kind of liked the ending with the big hearted Russian guy and the younger sister of the exploited call girl coming together with their story lines (does that count as a spoiler? i'm honestly not sure because i'm not sure anything that happens in this movie could be called a spoiler since a spoiler would imply that something happens towards the end of the movie that affects the outcome of the story---and that's really not the case with anything that happens in this movie) I wanted to like Jude Law--indeed i thought the first scene with him was setting up a potentially interesting storyline but then he all but disappears throughout the majority of the film only coming back at the tail end to give the illusion of coming full circle. This film doesn't seem to have much of a point unless you count the very vague notion that we're all people living on this planet and we're all worthy of happiness even if we're not entirely sure that we are worthy of it---i suppose that could work as a synopsis for a film but its about as vague as anything else that i managed to take away in the two hours of watching this movie unravel. It is i will admit well shot--and rather pretty to look at for the most part---a lot of the tracking shots are well done and the score is pretty good. I just wish there had been something or some point that could've tied this entire thing into a whole--it was really just an accumulation of scenes that don't quite build on top of each other the way i imagine the writer and director thought they would. In short its kind of a blah movie--and very much a rather large disappointment from the director of City of God, The Constant Gardner, and Blindness.

3 out of 9 people found the following review useful:

so what else is new?

Author: Solange Barakat from Crete- Greece
3 November 2012

I love social movies, but unfortunately this one was Boring, slow and without any exciting twists in the story. Antony Hopkins' monologue at the AA meeting is the best part of the movie as far as I'm concerned , because you know he will never disappoint you, but other than that ,it really isn't a movie that will enrich you in some way, it is a waste of time really.I also disliked the music, it was poorly chosen and made the movie look even worse. All that made me skip quickly to the end because I wanted to stop watching it, that's how boring it was. I was disappointed because I thought that actors such as Jude Law and Hopkins would eventually offer some excitement in the movie,but mainly, it tells common stories of our daily lives, so..what else is new?

7 out of 15 people found the following review useful:

Forgettable

Author: Rubens Junior from Brazil
1 August 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

360 is a movie about a huge international cast (and wasted as well) playing characters that are connected by a fact in common: the difficulties to decide which may be the right decision to take.

I guess that this is the worst movie by Fernando Meirelles and also the worst one to use this kind of 'hyperlinked' narrative. It is exactly as the title says, a turn for nothing. The movie ends the way it starts, and this is not even a spoiler because you will guess it in the very first minute, the same way that you will find out the premise of entire movie when is said that if you find a bifurcation in life, you do get it, but you will have to find out the right direction to take. But the movie doesn't use this idea so well and instead of being a very reliable and confident point of view about life and decisions, it's just another movie most about love and betrayal and some times (a very few times) about other difficulties.

It's not a thriller as it may seems, it's just a drama and a tedious one for sure. The acting is fine, the edition is quite good, and Meirelles's direction is effective, but ordinary. The best thing about Meirelles is the way he uses the camera angles to pick up right moments and that is always a great thing to observe, but the movie lacks of depth and soul. One thing that is very interesting is the fact that seems that all characters are faded and used to their conditions in a ordinary simple and miserable life, but you never get close enough to any of them because every story is told like a chronicle and not as relevant example. Everything is superficial and the movie never involves and brings you into it. Maybe that was the intention, but that distance doesn't work here.

It follows and uses the same characteristics of movies like Magnolia (1999), Crash (2004) and Heights (2005), just some examples as the list of Short Cuts-alike is huge and a now a sad cliché.

Maybe the main problem of entire movie is its huge number of characters and their bad developed stories which makes you never get an entire one or a whole idea.

A forgettable one.

16 out of 43 people found the following review useful:

The Movie Does Live Up to its Name; 360

Author: samlapidus from Toronto
12 September 2011

I saw this movie at is premier gala event at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The movie has good character development but the downside is that the beginning of the film is slow due to the nature that the characters are built. This is a movie about connections between people. As further connections are presented to the viewer the movie moves along at a faster pace. The cast most certainly brings strength to the film as does the locations in which filming took place. Unfortunately this is one of those pieces that you know worked best on paper. If you are a fan of the cast or the type of development that occurred in the movie Crash, you will like this work. The movie does live up to its name; 360.

11 out of 21 people found the following review useful:

Great and amazing cast. Slow moving and kinda boring movie. Good writing and acting but movie isn't all that good. I say C+

Author: Tony Heck (cosmo_tiger@hotmail.com) from United States
24 September 2012

"A wise man once said if there's a fork in the road take it." This is a movie that deals with many different characters from different parts of the world from different social classes and how they deal with day to day problems from doing anything to earn money to getting stranded while traveling. The cast in this, which includes: Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins and Ben Foster is great and honestly the cast is the best part of the movie. I used to think that a great cast automatically means that it will be a great movie, but after the last 4 or 5 movies I have seen based off the cast I am beginning to rethink my opinion. The acting is great in this and the story lines basically end up being tied together I guess but the movie is just so slow moving that it makes it really hard to stay interested in. The movie is pretty OK but for me this is another example of a great cast in a sub-par movie. Overall, very slow moving drama that is really only worth seeing because of the cast. I give it a C+.

The many good elements don't combine to make a good movie

Author: highwaytourist from United States
21 June 2014

When one sees all the talent that came together, you'd expect a really good movie. There is a premise with much promise, which was written by acclaimed British screenwriter Peter Morgan, directed by respected director Fernando Meirelles, and features some top acting talent from around the world, notably Anthony Hopkins. It's beautifully photographed in various parts of the world. So why didn't it work? Mainly because no one was given anything interesting to say or do. It's one of those connections movies with an ensemble cast, which had been done so effectively in movies like "Short Cuts" and "Magnolia", and it's hard to say how disappointing this film was. It wasn't a terrible movie, but it's so shallow, uneventful, and mediocre that I spent some two hours just waiting for something interesting to be said. I could have spent two hours at the airport observing various people and come up with something more interesting. As one critic put it, "It's a dull world after all."

2 out of 5 people found the following review useful:

La Ronde, not by Arthur Schnitzler...

Author: jotix100 from New York
19 October 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It is easy to see the appeal of a classic work, like "La Ronde" by Arthur Schnitzler, to be the basis of a film project. The fact that we, as humans, are more interconnected than we realize, is a theme that appeals to filmmakers all over the world. Unfortunately, this film was done better before by Max Ophuls in France.

This new retelling of the play was the work of the ambitious team of Fernando Mirelles, its director, and Peter Morgan, the screenwriter. For lack of imagination, the production goes all over the world in order to make its point. The action takes the viewer from Vienna, to Paris, to London, to Denver, and Phoenix, and back again. The film kept reminding this viewer of Robert Altman, a genius, in comparison, who could combine a lot of styles and situations into an end that, at least, made sense and was more palatable to audiences.

That is the basic problem with "360". Most of the stories do not connect, or get resolution, in most cases. There is a lot of talent in the film, poorly depicted on the screen. Take the cases of Jude Law's businessman prevented from having sex with an aspiring prostitute, or the grieving Anthony Hopkins coming to identify the body of who can be his runaway daughter.

The large cast is easy on the eyes, but in the final analysis, there is no substance to most of the vignettes. One can only recommend a viewing of the Max Ophuls' masterpiece "La Ronde".

23 out of 47 people found the following review useful:

the worst hyperlink movie ever!!

Author: Binoy Santhakumar (bonzybino) from India
21 July 2012

Let me not get this wrong but there's no hyperlink movie - movies with inter related characters and plots - which bored me till date, until watching 360. And have seen quite a lot of them to benchmark the genre, or the least to enjoy them. 360 falls flat with a lame storyline though it assembles some of the finest actors - needless to say all of them wasted - and for a thread about human connections and relations, it leaves a lot to be desired in the end.

The making style, the narration and the editing were good, but the screenplay had nothing new to offer, seen all of them and many of these characters and plots else where - Magnolia, crash, 96 minutes, traffic, Nine lives to name a few. I mean where's the novelty in showing interlocking stories of characters in pursuit of money, sex, love which have been told a million times! Thankfully we don't have an accident in the plot, easily the saving grace from getting all dejavu'd! To make it lamer the background scores were so erratic and ludicrous.

The movie with some names in the cast is hard to put down, how deceiving! and for a thread that was supposed to draw and evolve the complex nature of human relations sadly stoops, even before the drama gets built up to the core. A big let down.:( :(

1 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Personal Opinion of 360

Author: elaine-jade from United Kingdom
28 October 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This way it goes back and forth between countries and peoples lives does remind me of crash but it isn't as good as crash. When initially watching the beginning of the movie i thought it was another film because i didn't recognise the actors and it was in another language. It did follow up on the rule that it only takes six connections before someone else knows you. This film was very realistic and i believe the music was well chosen for each scene. This film is dreadfully slow...there isn't anything fast paced included in it. I wouldn't necessarily define it as a romance either it is quite passionless. The atmosphere is very shallow. I think the film was put together in a great way but the plot of the story wasn't as good as i was expecting. However i really wish john found his daughter at the end...he looks so alone. This should have been a television program.