I'm just curious...I came here to see what the buzz was on this movie and I can't find a single review. Just a bunch of people arguing. Has anyone actually seen the movie and have an opinion of it as a movie or adaptation of the book? I liked the book years ago.
shareMany of us haven't had a chance to see it. It's still not playing in my area. You can read professional reviews by clicking on reviews in the left hand column of the main IMDb page for the movie.
You can also look at viewer feedback from those who have seen it by checking the discussion board at http://forum.cpflow.com/index.php.
In the meantime, try to ignore some of the others on this board. Maybe once the movie gets wider release, or comes out on DVD (possibly November 2006), there will be more people coming to this board to actually talk about the film.
Jane
I saw the movie last night and can't say that I cared for it too much (neither did the audience). The production quality is terrible and most of the acting is pretty poor. I liked the book, but this is a terrible adaptation.
shareI'll watch it, just because they filmed some of it here in St. Augustine and because they rented props from my buisness. It's the least I can do, + I want to see how poorly a crappy book translated to the big screen.
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Otto: This is intense!
Miller: The life of a repo man is always intense.
I went to the Premiere opening night of the Staten Island Film Festival, lets just say I ended up skipping the rest of the Festival because this movie made me not want to watch any movies for probably a week, it was terrible. I knew it was going to be bad because the director wasn't even exited presenting it, he kept talking about how hard the film was to make and not the usual "This is my favorite film" he definately let off bad vibes even before the atrocity started. Such a waste, some good actors in there too.
shareWell I think this movie is nice for spiritual people. But even then I think for most spiritual people the film went too far in the forseeing stuff and the last scroll thing with all the people 'helping' them see.
If you believe in energies between people and paranormal stuff, you'll be ok watching this. But i can imagine that the normal movie watching person, thinks this is not so good. The acting isn't very well, though ok.
If you don't expect much, you'll be fine.
The intent is there, but the main problem is the cast. The acting seems like something out of a discovery channel re-enactment about the bible or something. Great shots and special effects wasted on very bad casting. It's bad acting, don't fool yourselves because you want to like it because you liked the book so much. But, I will say that it is crafted better than the da vinci code was as far as turning a book into a film.
sucks when films have a budget, yet are unable to get good actors when there are so many out there--i am not even talking about a listers--
I would still recommend taking a glance at it if you are a fan of the book.
Hah!
I knew I wasn't the only one who thought this movie is a complete and utter crap!
I'm so sorry for the actors who had the bad luck to take part in it...
I hated it the moment it started, yet I was hoping it will reveal something deeper, better to hold onto. Nah...
[deleted]
I went into it blindly. I'm interested in reading the book now. Throughout the movie I just felt like I was missing something. A lot of the acting seemed a little cheesy and as fast as everything happened, it seems so slow. Basically, I liked what it was trying to do but felt the execution was poor. I'm glad I saw it but I don't think I'd ever watch it again.
shareI saw this movie yesterday and I have to say, ignoring all of the controversy over the subject matter and looking as a movie critic, I hated this movie. It was slow and jumped around illogically-- characters often appeared without explaining where they came from or how they got there, dramatic tension would build up then just dissolve without a climax and the two leads, while amazing in other projects (particularly Matthew Settle in Band of Brothers), came off in this movie as simply annoying. I attribute this mostly to bad directing because I consider it a director's fault for using a bad performance when we know that the actor is capable of much more from seeing their work on other projects). The special effects were sort of embarrassing and the music was rediculously corny. On a positive note, the scenery was beautiful however. Overall, dreadful movie. Don't waste your time.
shareI have to agree with "lindsay5396". I loved the book and highly recommend it. But this movie is possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Unless you have read the book, I think you'd be completely lost as to what the story was about. It meandered around and skipped back & forth without explanation. It looked more like a poorly made for TV movie.
As said by others.....the disappointment was more about what the movie could and should have been. I'm not sure if it's just the directing or the way the story was adapted for movie...probably both. Sorry to anyone else out there who loved it. This is just my opinion.
I saw it just now and I hadn't even heard about the book before starting to look into it after the movie. And I just found it really cheesy. In fact, towards the end I was laughing at the movies cheesiness. What surprisses me even more is that. when I looked up the prophecy out of curiousity, it seams like this is some kind of religion in reality. And even more outrageous. There are now 11 insights and a 12th comming. Looks like someone is trying to squeeze as much money out of this as posible.
Anyway. This wasn't the worst movie I've seen, though the ending was pathetic.
same here, i just watched the movie and it was pathetic...
For people who haven't read the book it's even worse, you will be lost throughout the movie and some details won't make any sense.
I hate to say this, but probably one of the worse movies i've ever seen!
on the subject of bad acting which a lot of people seem to be discussing:
i have to say, there did seem to be a lot of bad acting in the film. i thought the standard would be higher because i always thought sarah wayne callies was a good actress. although its probably not fair to say shes's not: im not sure if it was bad acting or just a crap script to be honest. there wasnt much to work with, and the actors probably couldnt relate very well because there was no sense of reality in the film.
it was in its own little world and didnt allow the audience in either as it made no sense half the time. it's not because i have a problem with the spiritual stuff, its just that ive seen much better representations of it and they didnt do it justice.
its probably one of the worst films ive ever seen aswell.
I have learned to never go by what other people say about movies and just watch them and make my own opinions. i haven't read the book but i really enjoyed the movie. so go ahead and just watch the film if you haven't already.
shareYou made not want to watch this movie, it's rated very low here on IMdb.
So, i think i gonna delete the movie from my PC.
Look, in my opinion, the way Peruvian people are shown completely sucks the enjoyment to watch this movie. When does it take place, anyway, I think I missed that information.
Anyway, it reminded me of Chile in 'The Reaping' (terrible movie, btw) and Brazil in 'Stigmata'.
Ow, c'mon, Hollywood, how old-chichey must you be when portraying Latin America on movies?!
I read the book 20 years ago. I'm surprised it took over a decade to get it on film, and that in the end the film was pretty disappointing (from a cinematic standpoint). I think the problems for the film stem from the fact that, for whatever reason, Warner Bros. didn't option the book (which was published by Warner Books) once it became a best-seller. In the DVD extras, James Redfield said he was courted by many big name studios, but he didn't feel any of them was "right" and turned the name studios down. And thus, a decade passed before production on a low budget, independent film began. The budget wasn't TOO low, as there was room in it to hire more well-known Hollywood names like Hector Elizondo and Jurgen Prochnow. But it wasn't big enough to make the story a sufficient length to do the book or the characters justice. And so the story feels rushed.
The acting isn't great, but again I put the reason for that on the low budget and a lackluster director. The script left a lot to be desired, and that is probably because the book's author, James Redfield, wrote the screenplay. Book authors don't always make good screen writers. Take Ayn Rand and her dreadfully choppy screenplay of her book "The Fountainhead." In the case of "The Fountainhead" and "The Celestine Prophecy" the authors attempted to condense their books into a script and the end result was that each ended up looking like a Cliffs Notes adaptation. Character nuances are omitted to move the story along, and so we are not led to understand who these people are and what motivates them. Story is crucial to film, as any professor of film studies will tell you. But story is not exclusive of character, and the reason books get made into movies is, in part, to give the characters dimension that doesn't always read from the printed page.
I'd put this film on the same par as "The Shift" with Dr. Wayne Dyer and Michael DeLuise. These are low budget, independently produced "message movies" not Hollywood blockbusters. Yes, the acting, filming, CGI effects, and action sequences could have been more professionally done. But what would have happened to the message? Would "The Celestine Prophecy" have been turned into another Indiana Jones-type film, or worse yet, something akin to the Brendan Frasier take on "The Mummy"? Watch "TCP" for the message and don't get too mired in its obvious budgetary and production shortcomings and it will be somewhat enjoyable. Better yet, just read the book.
It's crap.
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