Rate this Movie 
How does the Tomatometer work
Reviews Counted:45
Fresh:9
Rotten:36
Average Rating:3.9/10
Consensus: Despite Jared Leto's committed performance, Chapter 27 fails to penetrate to mind of Mark David Chapman, John Lennon’s killer.
Theatrical Release:Mar 28, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: What went on in the mind of the man who felt compelled to assassinate John Lennon? Chapter 27 deftly pilots us into the dark psyche of Mark David Chapman the weekend before the December 8, 1980,... [More]
Leto, who gained poundage for the role, keeps taking his shirt off just to make it clear that he is the latest in a long line of actors to confuse daily patronage of the local doughnut shop with intensive actorly preparation.
Top CriticChapter 27 just makes you feel bad for, and about, everybody -- including the wretched souls who made the thing.
There are cheesy special effects and even cheesier gags, and the schmaltz eventually piles on neck-deep.
Despite the subject, the script is flat. Despite using the real locations, the production looked cheesy. Finally, the decision to strip Mark David Chapman (John Lennon's killer) of any humanity makes the narrative decidedly one note.
Some viewers may well find Chapter 27 sleazy or distasteful, and I won't argue the point. But Schaefer's movie creates its own highly compelling world, which is pretty much the prime directive in filmmaking.
Top Critic[Leto's] mumbled voiceover may perfectly reflect Chapman's inner world. [But] who wants to enter that world? Neither Chapman ... nor his inner life is very interesting ... I was looking at my watch before the first third of the movie had passed.
In fact, the real problems with Chapter 27 is it vagueness. Everyone here - Leto, Lohan, Friedlander - leaves us in the lurch, and nothing Schaefer does can save our confusion.
Imagine hanging out in the head of a psychotic, indefensible loser for 80 minutes and getting nothing worth remembering or admiring in return.
"I hate the movies. They're phony, so goddamned phony." Poor Mark David Chapman: no matter how many times he rejects the world of celebrity and phoniness, he's dragged back inside.
However much objectivity the filmmakers try to bring to it, there is an inescapable element of glorification of thoroughly reprehensible characters.
In order to play John Lennon's assassin Mark David Chapman, actor Jared Leto gained some 70 pounds. Seemingly following his lead, the pic itself is heavy, lethargic, and exasperating.
Top CriticChapter 27 is a smart attempt to distill the twisted psychology and motivation of Mark David Chapman, which we've all superficially gleaned through mass-media reports and intermittent updates on Chapman's incarceration.
This misbegotten psychological portrait eagerly foregrounds Leto's excess blubber and histrionic blather, delivered like bad improv outside the Dakota building.
Top CriticWorth seeing for Leto's performance ... but its slow, meandering pace tends to be its undoing.
A failed attempt to probe dramatically the inner workings of the troubled mind of John Lennon's assassin in a chronicle replete with shallow Freudian observations about delusion and paranoia.
The film manages to be entirely about Mark David Chapman without saying a single insightful thing about him.
Will likely make its own mark on history as the single most relentlessly self-conscious vanity project to ever be conceived.
Visually ugly, morally non-existent and a complete black hole in the departments of insight and wit, Chapter 27 is quite possibly the most godawful, irredeemable film to yet emerge in the 21st century.
It's a train-wreck turn in a dreary movie about a self-pitying loser responsible for murdering a beloved pop icon.
his drama, about the three days leading up to the murder, never overcomes its inherent ghoulishness, largely because Chapman, like so many mentally ill people, is a huge bore.
March 25, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
More...
January 26, 2007:
Sundance Review: "Starting Out in the Evening" Is Funny; "Chapter 27" Needs to Lose Weight; "Once" Has Charms
Senh caught the screenings of three films making their stop at the Sundance Film Festival this week: a funny and well-acted drama about relationships and the creative process; a... More...
Last week, MSN gave us their top 09 films. Now see what their favorites of the decade are!
Here's a list of the 50 best movies of 2009, according to the good people over at Moviefone.
Hollywood.com takes a stab at determining who in movies will be on Santa's naughty list in 2009.
TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.
Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!
RSS Feeds
2 Comments
