Disquiet

Well, this movie certainly was in a league of its own.

I had not heard about this 2023 thriller titled "Disquiet" from writer and director Michael Winnick prior to stumbling upon it by random chance. And seeing that the movie had Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the leading role, I figured that chances were that it might be a watchable enough movie.

However, I opted to scroll through some reviews of the movie prior to watching it, and those weren't painting the movie in a good light. Yet, I still opted to give "Disquiet" the benefit of the doubt. Though, I ended up turning off the movie with just about 20 minutes left to watch. But I have to admit that I was bored senseless by that point, and just couldn't take more of the torment that is "Disquiet".

Writer and director Michael Winnick put together a very, very bland script for the movie. And there wasn't much of anything that really made much of any coherent sense throughout the course of the movie. It felt, for the most parts, just like the writer and director made things up as the shooting of the movie progressed.

The acting performances in "Disquiet" were fair enough. Not Jonathan Rhys Meyers finest work by any means, but watchable nonetheless. There were three familiar faces on the cast list here for me, that being Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Lochlyn Munro and Garry Chalk.

Visually then "Disquiet" was an okay movie. The special effects were fair enough, but nothing that had me impressed or anything. But it was just lacking that particular ingredient to make it outstanding.

For a thriller then "Disquiet" was a rather strange one. I am sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as "Disquiet", I just happened not to find much of any enjoyment in the movie.

My rating of "Disquiet" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

Not really sure what they were going for here. Was it to get you to think about your current life and what could happen in the afterlife (if that's your belief)? Is it that people are caught in this never ending pit of purgatory or that if you've lived your life, well, there is that bright light that you can walk into. Not sure what the goal was but it makes for a goodnight of margaritas and a room of friends for a good philosophical discussion.

And on the other hand it could just be a very, very awful film that missed all intended objectives and goals. I'm thinking it's a mix of all things noted, that resulted in a bad movie.

What was a good feeling in the first 5 mins of the movie, then quickly deteriorates as the acting and script kicks in. It is so frustrating obvious to see what was trying to be done here, but sadly, the concept misses the mark completely. What could have been a horror masterpiece concludes with a plink plonk piano soundtrack to a lame finish as you hit that realisation that you should have just watched Silent Hill again, and then again.

Special effects can be decent. Make up is not. Boob job zombies are decent. Blurred shot of what looks a cracking pair of boobs is frustratingly not.

D- must try harder.

Disquiet is a pseudo intellectual film, in the same way that M. Night Shyamalan films are pseudo intellectual.

You can tell they were going for a The Sixth Sense type of model here.

Though, it doesn't quite work as well.

The whole thing is effectively the same film as Wristcutters: A Love Story, just with people in comas, instead of people who have committed suicide.

However...it's just not very entertaining.

You strain to keep track of everything, knowing a big revelation is on it's way.

But it just doesn't hit like it should.

They got something akin to A Field In England going on- with angels and demons in play, to give it a bit of nuance.

Alongside a sort of Wizard Of Oz angle, where those trapped in this world must "learn their lesson" in order to escape.

But most don't.

And if you die in the game...you die in real life.

To be fair...there's definitely something to the concept.

It's actually a pretty cool idea (which likely isn't far off from the "real life" state of things - think, like The Matrix).

However, the story- and execution of the idea behind it- need to be improved.

I chock up it's failure to impress, to it's pseudo intellectual nature.

As it's just outside of that sweet spot in the middle ground.

Not being intellectual enough to please the cinerati...and too complex for your average Netflix viewer.

Meaning that it's not likely to please anyone.

3 out of 10 (for trying).

I love JRM movies and have seen/enjoyed nearly all. That being said, this movie is so horrible (stupid) I turned it off after like 20 mins even though I paid $6 to rent it. For someone who is such a good actor, I was surprised to see him in it. This is one of those movies I can see porn stars who want to go legit starring in.

He's in a bad car accident, wakes up in a creepy hospital, and starts fighting off a weird old guy with bad nails and a bad comb-over. Then the scene randomly cuts to a chick getting plastic surgery and she wakes up to botched plastic surgery ghosts and he/she randomly fight them. That is when I turned it off. JRM learned German for the 12th Man...only to star in this steaming pile?

Save your money and skip this junk.