McVeigh

"McVeigh" (2024) attempts to chronicle the descent of Timothy McVeigh into domestic terrorism, but ultimately fails to provide a compelling or insightful portrayal of its subject. Directed by Mike Ott, the film had the potential to explore the psychological and ideological motivations behind one of the most infamous crimes in American history. Instead, it delivers a hollow, underdeveloped narrative that neither informs nor engages.

One of the film's biggest flaws is its lack of character development. McVeigh's disillusionment with the U. S. government-particularly his anger towards the federal response at Waco-is a crucial aspect of his radicalization, yet the movie barely touches on it. Without a deeper look into his beliefs and frustrations, McVeigh comes across as a one-dimensional figure, reducing the film's impact. The supporting characters are similarly neglected, existing only to move the plot forward rather than adding any real depth or nuance.

As a thriller, McVeigh is disappointingly flat. There's little tension, and the pacing drags, making it a struggle to stay engaged. The lack of emotional weight or psychological insight leaves the film feeling empty, as though it merely goes through the motions without saying anything meaningful. Even Alfie Allen's performance as McVeigh feels restrained, likely due to the script's failure to provide any real substance for him to work with.

Overall, McVeigh squanders its potential. Instead of offering a gripping or thought-provoking look at its subject, it settles for a superficial retelling that neither informs nor captivates. A film tackling such a disturbing and complex event should leave an impact-this one doesn't.

Such a poorly made film. The writing and directing in particular are truly bad. Turns out the writer and director are the same clueless man. A Mr Ott. I hope Mr Ott has a day job. Perhaps it is true that morons like McVeigh have no friends, no personality and no prospects. Mindless cowards who find purpose in hate. Yet a movie about a dull witted, friendless, stupid man does not have to be the same. This film is really boring. We gain not one ounce of insight into McVeigh. He is on the phone to somebody. A lot. We never know who. The photography is as bad as the writing. Dull shots framed in dullness. It is hard to say about the actors. They were doing what they were paid to do, which is mostly nothing. It could have been a contender, to try and give the viewers some insight into this mindless and soulless act of murder and destruction, but that did not happen. If you are looking for even the tiniest shred of insight, it is not here. I watched this turkey so you don't have to. Give it a hard pass. You will have missed absolutely nothing. I only gave it a 3 because it is, in a small and sad way, at least an effort at understanding stupid, aimless and lost men like McVeigh. But F for effort.

This movie seems to weave a lot of fake into it's story-line... I can not find where McVeigh visited some Richard Snell in prison at all. That seems to be fabricated just like Tim's girlfriend "Cindy" in the story. Far as I can find, he didn't have a girlfriend (past High School days) and claimed to not know how to talk to them. Who was the Fredrick person ?

The dialog/script in the movie is wonky, like any gun person (especially a decorated top shooter in the army) would ever call a handgun magazine a "clip". Only Hollywood does that, certainly not a gun enthusiast that travels in gun circles and cherishes the 2nd Amendment.

How about the scene where the movie protrays Tim as upset over an encounter with a black fellow, and plots to shoot him... I can't find that in any fashion, the film seems to make up stuff as it goes along...

What we do know is Tim was a person that kept to himself for the most part and was laconic with others. This is portrayed excellently in the film and that he bombed a Federal building... that is about all this flick got right... We don't get to see him at Waco being part of the upset folks.

This movie is as much fiction as it is non-fiction, thus why I rate is so low... If you wanted to paint a picture, at least use crayons from the correct box to paint that picture.

Very predictable. I knew how it would end before the title card.

OK, jokes aside, this movie was super flat. It left everything very 2 dimensional. Nothing felt really explored.

I remember these incidents, and honestly, I feel I could have written a better movie, with more insight into the events based solely off of my recollection of the news from the event when it happened.

It didn't really answer anything, and felt like it didn't even know what to ask. It was honestly boring, slow, and uninspired.

I didn't go into it with high expectations, but DID know there was a rich bit of storytelling to be had here. Instead, it was barely paint by numbers regurgitation of the story.

This movie was marketed as a "psychological thriller", yet there was nothing "psychological" or "thrilling" about it.

The film did very little to explain McVeigh and Nichols' backstory, and show us who they were and what they believed. Instead, it stumbles along from scene to scene, almost like they made things up as they went along. And then it just ends.

Overall I found the movie unengaging, uninformative, and boring. It was a half-assed hollow shell of what it should have been. Makes you think they were trying to be "first" instead of "best"

I did think that Anthony Carrigan's performance of Andreas Strassmeir was very good. Too bad the writers couldn't do a better job of telling the whole story, though.