UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Kenyae Kofi This movie was not too shabby. I like how they call out the church of Scientology for not joining the documentary and also, for calling out the violence the church of Scientology is known for. I like how they call out religion for charging for everything and how much money you can end up spending. And using the primitive e meter machine that used to be a lie detector test. I completed their Scientology stress tests and noticed how money hungry these guys were for me to buy their book by L Ron Hubbard. Religion is clearly a problem and one thing about this movie that was incorrect was saying that Scientologists do not have a god even though they believe in an overlord named Xenu that sent us humans to Earth. Which is a completely ridiculous story. When we jump back to the money hunger I think needed to have spent more time on the fact that to be a top Scientologist member you would have to drop as high of two million dollars. One thing I noticed about religions in these documentaries is that they always follow you around in a suspicious car to see what you're doing. It was also terrifying to hear that many people have had worse experiences for trying to liberate themselves. Also, the verbal abuse and verbal insults show how religion is a very strong case of brainwashing. This movie was insanely terrifying to see the religious act like this over another load of crap religion. I do think the way it ended was crap.

mikeyfrazier This has got to be one of the most disappointing movies I've seen and when it was over my mouth was literally agape at just how bad it was. I should preface this by saying that I am an absolute HUGE fan of Louis and my disappointment was amplified because I was hoping (expecting) to see something on par with his previous work. The film is stilted, disjointed, and feels poorly thought out. The lack of any real new material forces the crew to constantly cut back to the half-baked casting calls and 're- enactments' which never make sense and don't serve much, if any, purpose. The crew seem to set out with no real goal but to create a studio version of Scientology for Louis to take part in. That never comes to fruition, which is a good thing because it was a terrible idea in the first place and a horribly weak cornerstone to place the framing of the film on. Normally I find Louis' mode of interviewing very interesting- his characteristic long pauses and 'innocent' way of questioning his subjects through absolute frankness makes for surprisingly revealing answers, but here it just feels deliberately insulting. At one point in the film, a major player and ex-Scientologist is harassed by some members and is visually upset. Instead of using this to push the ex-Scientologist to another level, Louis instead decides to needle him some more with a not completely unnecessary but unbelievably poorly timed question.Pointless and disappointing are two words that immediately came to mind after finishing this film. Right near the end, the ex-Scientologist that was harassed insinuates that the gloves are coming off; I finally got excited, expecting some big revelations from this man, only to have the credits roll. This film set out with no goal and ends exactly that way- accomplishing nothing.

Jack Stroats I find Scientology and cults in general a fascinating subject and have watched most documentaries on the subject including the most recent one by Alex Gibney, Going Clear. Both this and Going Clear are excellent exposes but in different ways. As one reviewer said Going Clear is more factual whilst this one gives you a better feeling of Scientology is all about - a good description in my opinion.I've often got the feeling that Scientology is somewhere between a cult and a religion but this film, more than any other, puts it squarely in the cult category.Right from the outset you get a feel for this. Requests for interviews by Theroux are turned down by the church an almost unheard of response for an organisation that large. Most will have P.R departments ready to go to any and all media interests.This makes it hard for Theroux of course. His usual film making style is subtle and he spends considerable time those involved, something impossible with this subject.So he decides to use actors and actresses to re-enact some of the abuse by the organisation's head, David Miscavige. This is powerful stuff which is different to simply hearing reports of the same abuse.But I found the real behaviour of the real Scientologists even more damning, particularly when coupled with commentary by ex-Scientologists. Near the end of the film the organisation sent a letter to Louis Theroux saying because he was making a documentary about them they intended to make a documentary about him. Such a response seemed just so totally infantile, like a young child's tit for tat: if you take mine I'll take yours kind of response. On top of the rest of the film this gave an insight into just how separated this group is from mainstream society - to even think that was an appropriate response.All in all one comes away with the a real sense that Scientology is run by a powerful and paranoid sociopath who has somehow managed to get away with what he is doing for years. A great effort by Theroux that worked much better than his older documentary on another cult: the Westboro Baptist Church.

Leofwine_draca MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE is a big-screen outing for the likable documentarian Louis Theroux, well known here in the UK for his TV series WEIRD WEEKENDS, which I personally loved. The subject matter of this one is obvious from the title, but the problem is that there are already documentaries on the same subject matter, and better ones too. Even the notorious PANORAMA episode with the on-air presenter breakdown is better than Theroux's version.The problem with this is the lack of really meaty material. You want to see Theroux infiltrating the church, interviewing members and causing consternation, but aside from a couple of arguments in the street, none of that really happens. Theroux attempts to get around this lack of meat by staging re-enactments of certain real-life events and, while dramatic, they're just not as effective as true documentary footage would be. That's why I don't like documentaries which extensively use re-enactment footage, although there are a few exceptions like THE IMPOSTER where it is effective.