The Order
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Movie Reviews of The Order
Movie Review: A wonderfully creepy film about European mythology
Summary: 5 Stars
Alex Bernier (Ledger) is a conservative priest, wise beyond his young years, struggling against the modernity of the Catholic Church, and a member of an archaic and declining fringe of the mainstream church. He is a troubled young man, having had relations with a female, whom he still loves, but alas, can not have if he wants to remain a priest. He then learns that the head of his order, the Carolingians, a kind of Faustian faction within the church, reminiscent of the Cathars, has been found dead in Rome, apparently from suicide. This being one of the cardinal sins of the Catholic Church, the priest being denied burial in consecrated ground, and hence denied entry into Heaven.
In Rome he discovers that the head of his order had dealings with the "Sin Eater", a renegade that provides absolution outside of the Church, by devouring the sins of his clients, and hence a threat to the power of the Church itself. He gets permission to search for this Sin Eater, and enlisting the help of the only remaining member of his order except himself, he seeks him out in quite dark places, even having to enter the domain of the Dark Pope to find him. This domain was so wonderfully done; it is something of the best I've seen in films of this kind.
The film is a kind of mixture between "The Ninth Gate", "Constantine", "Omen" and "End of Days", if that gives you an indication. Interestingly, it is also not anti-European at all, like 99 % of the films made by Jewish Hollywood, the only indication is that the evil character in the film of course had to be a very European-looking person, but that might be coincidence, I don't know. Without revealing the ending, I can just say that this is decidedly one of the best horror/thriller movies I've seen, and one I highly recommend, portraying important spiritual issues without the usual nonsense from Hollywood.
Watch it!
Movie Review: Evil lurks in the catacombs.
Summary: 5 Stars
DVD in Widescreen.
Father Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) seems to have his plate full. A mentor, Dominic (Francesco Carnelutti) has died mysteriously and a woman, Mara (Shannyn Sossamon), who shot him during an exorcism a year ago has escaped from the mental health facility and has returned to Father Alex. He chooses not to tell the authorities.
The church arranges a flight for Alex to Rome. He takes Mara with him. Their he comes across the two strange orphans (Mirko Casaburo, Giulia Lombardi) that sit still in the parlor. He examines the body of Dominic and finds unusual markings on his chest. He believes it wasn't suicide, but murder.
As Alex and three nuns have buried Dominic in the cemetary, the supernatural orphans appear. Father Alex commands them to hell. The demonic orphans vaporize and become a flock of birds. Father Thomas (Mark Addy) comes to help Alex. They were the last of the Carolingians.
Together, they will get down to the root of what The Order is and find out the mystery that Dominic had discovered.
Also in the cast: Benno Furmann, Peter Weller.
This movie provides a good character for Mark Addy.
Heath Ledger and Mark Addy also appear in A Knight's Tale (Special Edition) (2001).
This movie was released two years before Brokeback Mountain (Full Screen Edition) (2005).
DVD includes: Audio commentary by Director Brian Helgeland, 7 deleted scenes and dailies. Theatrical Trailer.
Movie Review: Okay, my turn
Summary: 5 Stars
4.5 so I'm rounding up.As I recall the term Carolingian is probably Matrix talk -- remember the French "Marvingian?" That's historical, and French, having to do with the Jesus post-resurrection blood line. You know the story there probably.
Actually you'd be surprised to find out just how historical in theme this thing is. It's mythified (I haven't spent a lot of hours figuring out the details yet but I may) certainly as to the plot -- you have basically a vampire-mix with a highly sophisticated anti-Catholic (sorry) patter based on in fact real-life incompatible forces within the real-life church and those who have over the centuries been persecuted for various heresies. No joke there.
Anyway, look, if you like scary movies and are a believer, this will probably rock you. If you don't like God or any of that -- it's not your type. But it is certified real except for one thing: while the Vatican in 300AD was staffed with more than 300 full time exorcists -- (point of trivia) -- the master of evil and Ghost Busters stuff is juvenile. But compared to anything else it tows the line of tasty scary.
That and (if you watch the deleted scenes) any super-Reike type practitioner can do what this "sin-eater" does without needing a baby-chaser. (Those who were confused by the shortened storyline should turn out the lights and turn off the stereo when you watch because nobody could have figured out this deleted scene. It's strictly vampire.)
Loved it. Am giving one to all my close friends & relatives so they'll think about their religion more.
Movie Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
I just saw this movie tonight. It took me a while to finally watch it due to the bad reviews it was getting. I figured it wasn't worth the time.
This movie is great. All actors did awesome. A review said that Shannyn S did poorly b/c the reviewer said they 'didn't know if she was really trying to get in the role or if she was just too tired to care...'
I've seen her in other movies, she's a great actress so I believe she was doing a great job actually being the role.
I have a brother that consistently gets migraines which sounds close to what she had with her headaches. When you have headaches that constant, all you are is a zombie (a very tired & slow moving/acting individual... tired). She played a really important and challenging role & played it well by making sure to act the part of a person that has a migraine, spiritual & emotional problems.
The other actors did great also, the story was excellent & the film's location was very cool.
This movie is really under rated, probably b/c its unexpectedly slow moving. From what I remember, the commercials that were out when this was in the theater made it look like Exorcist which is pretty fast moving for a horror movie. This is not near as fast moving as Exorcist, its not as scary but its just as good.
If you want to compare its 'level of horror' to other movies, I'd compare it to Stigmata, Stir of Echoes or The Seventh Sign. Those are all good like this one, but not really horror...
Movie Review: The simple twist of irony makes all the difference..
Summary: 5 Stars
I, personally, Thought the movie was excellent.Then again, that's probably because the main reason I was first interested in watching it was because it starred a foreign actor that I'm greatly familiar with. That would be Benno Fürmann, a German actor who played the delightful role of the Sineater. He gave an outstanding performance in his first English film, and for that I was very satisfied.
The movie mainly follows around the plot of an underground, evil religious order taking place under the Catholic church. That immediately drew me in, because I love plots that deal with elements that are supposed to be pure and full of good intention, (in this case, the church) but make them malignant and spiteful. It's a simple twist of irony that makes it so delightfully evil, something you don't see everyday.
And besides that, the movie DID involve thinking and paying attention in order to understand it to the fullest. I didn't mind that a bit; And sure, there were the typical elements of romance, sacrafice and the good old fight between good and evil, but the setting was new as well as the plot, making it an interesting progression the whole way through.
These are, of course, based on my own opinions and personal expiriences; so I only ask that when you do see this movie for a first or second time, (or maybe more, perhaps) please do so with an open mind. It's a great movie with a great performance; and given your chance, it will pull you in.