Rating: 
Summary: Knowledge Is The Enemy Of Faith
Review: Dominic (Francesco Carnelutti) the head of the Carolinian Order, a dying Catholic order charged with dealing with ghosts, demons and all manner of the undead, has been by all appearances murdered. Father Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) travels from New York to Rome to investigate. Father Thomas Garrett (Mark Addy) joins him there. They are the last of the Carolinians.Dominic had been excommunicated by the church for rejection of articles of faith and was being denied burial in the consecrated ground with the rest of his order. Many Carolinians faced this type of treatment by the Church in the past because they thirsted for knowledge that the Church wanted to bury. In order to pass into the kingdom of Heaven, they needed to be forgiven for their sins. The excommunicated Carolinians developed the idea of a sin-eater who would eat bread and salt off the body of a dying person and thus take on the burden and knowledge of their sins thereby absolving them. The Sin Eater (Benno Furmann) is 500 years old and is tired he wants to pass on the ability and he's chosen Father Alex Bernier as his successor. What Alex doesn't know, is that he was groomed for this from an early age and the trap has all ready been set. This is an excellent movie exploring the corruption of the Catholic Church and their habit of rejecting articles that were once part of their faith. Though the Carolinian Order is fictious, much of the archane knowledge once used by the Church was slowly stricken from it over centuries. It is easy to believe that any orders established for these purposes would come as an embarrassment to the modern church and their members would be persecuted. My one major criticism is that some of the actors called the order Carolinian and others Carolingian. Which is it? If you like movies that challenge you to think, see this picture!
Rating: 
Summary: A boring film that fails to capture our interest soon enough
Review: "The Order" is a rather boring movie that fails early one to get the audience involved in a convoluted religious story. I starting watching this 2003 film thinking it was some sort of attempt to do a film of a Dan Brown novel without using a Dan Brown novel (like "Jezebel" beating "Gone With the Wind" to the big screen) because all I knew was that it was about a priest, Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) trying to solve a murder with all sorts of connections to the Catholic Church. Then I noticed Mark Addy was in the film playing Thomas Garrett, another member of Alex's order, the Carolingians (an order that supposedly makes the Jesuits look like drop outs), and remembered they were in "A Knight's Tale" together. Then I looked at the female lead in the film, Shannyn Sossamon as Mara Sinclair and thought that she looked a lot like the girl in "A Knight's Tale." Of course, she is, and the writer-director of "The Order" is Brian Helgeland, the writer-director of "A Knight's Tale." So now I am watching this film and wondering how these four people got together to make a film that could not have less in common with their previous collaboration. Maybe "The Order" would work better with a different cast because that fact keeps getting in the way. But by the time I had put those connections together I was already rather disinterested in the story. The head of the Carolingians is killed by a Sin Eater (Benno Fürmann), which has all sorts of religious and historical significance. Alex goes after the Sin Eater, intending to kill him, only to find the tables turned on him in a rather interesting way, but for a lot of viewers I bet it will be too late. In other words, if this movie was on television, a lot of viewers would have changed channels before it got to the part where the twist is revealed. But when you pay to watch something you tend to stick it out to the end (which explains why I watched it all and my wife went to bed). The story of the Sin Eater's origin is probably the most interesting scene in the film, but when the best scene in the film is a flashback, that is not a good thing. If Brian Helgeland has ditched the Mara character, so that the audience was not expecting her and Alex to end up in bed together, despite the collar he is usually wearing, this film might have worked better. There is a tendency to want to compare this film with "The Exorcist," but actually it reminded me more of "The Last Temptation of Christ" (think about it, I am not off the wall here). I was almost going to add another star to this one until the Alex-Mara sub-plot picked up steam again and effectively derailed the last half of the film. Picking up the pacing for the first half hour would have helped as well. There is a good idea here buried beneath all of the interpersonal angst of Alex's character, but in the end "The Order" simply does not work and the fault lies with Helgeland's writing half. Of course, given that he did the superb adaptations of "L.A. Confidential" and "Mystic River," this is rather surprising conclusion to reach. The DVD includes a series of deleted scenes that make it clear this movie could have moved even slower and been even less interesting, and in the end "The Order" is one of those films where the trailer is a lot more interesting than the actual film, which is one of the greatest sins in the cinema today.
Rating: 
Summary: This movie makes church seem like a roller coaster ride.
Review: The screenwrtier poorly attempted to re-create the "Exorcist" . But put in some blah-blah love story that makes you sick instead of keepig you engaged. There is no substance whatsoever in this entire film. It had the potential of being something special but blows it by showing a bunch of people yack about things nobody cares about. Extremely boring, I wanted to leave the theater when I saw this but the dumb movie tickets were expensive so I had to withstand the dreary torture which felt like it lasted forever. Nothing on screen connected relevance back to the whatever the characters were talking about. They use computer graphics in here that instead of wowing me, just ruined the movie even more. Some people say this movie did horrible in the movie theaters because of how "thought-provoking" and "slow-paced-without-action-because it's an intelligent film" it was. What is so intelligent or thought provokling when the story is basically about pretty boy Heat Ledger that's a priest who has a love interest and disobeys his religion? Oh and there's some mumbo jumbo about the "sin-eater" (movie was originally going to be titled "sin-eater"). Lame concept but the movie took the "sin-eater" thing too seriously, making the movie become pathetic and delusional about how dark and intelligent it was. Yeah, I know there were really sin-eaters in the medievel times but this movie just makes it sound cheesy. Nothing in the movie was executed right and I forget why I even bothered to see this movie. If you want smart horror films watch, Pysho, Rosemarry's Baby, Exorcist, Omen, or any of the Romero "Dead Trilogy" films. But if you want mind-numbingly boring horror, watch the Order. This movie makes church seem like a roller coaster ride.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mysterious, Pyschological and Theological Thrill Ride!!!
Review: WARNING**: To those who are religious, and esp. practicing Catholics, you might find this movie offensive and/or blasphemous.** Now that that's out of the way, this movie starts off on the mysterious edge and moves further and further until you're sucked in. Alex (Heath Ledger) is a young Catholic priest, who has recently heard that his mentor, Dominic, was found dead in his home. The powers that be have written this off as suicide (a cardinal sin) as Dominic had been ex-communicated from the church long ago. When Alex visits the morgue and sees strange markings upon Dominic's body--he now knows his death was more than just a simple suicide. Alex and his co-priest, Thomas (Mark Addy), decide to delve into the investigation, and decide that maybe it was other forces that killed Dominic, rather than his own hand. Alex discovers the "Sin Eaters" --a religious sect that can absolve the sins of the damned, by freeing his soul. When this ritual is done, the sinner's soul is ultimately freed, without knowledge of past sins. The sins (and the knowledge of) are now the burden of the "sin eater". However, this is done for a price--your own life. ** I won't go any further, but by now, you can pretty much get a gist of what the story is about and how it plays out.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow! Vatican City has a Secret Rave Bar?
Review: There's a plausible premise for a horror film of some sort in this hodge podge of a movie - unfortunately, any discovery of it is three or four script rewrites beyond the version currently being served up in The Order. As is, if you can wait till the third act, when the movie starts to pick up some and even supplies a little intrigue, you still have to sit through some ridiculously stultifying scenes and some of the most god-awful, dull dialogue imaginable for the first hour. The directorial and writing lapses are so shoddy and glaring they're near unforgivable - but don't take my word for this - just look at the actors' embarrassed faces as they mumble through this stuff.
Rating:
Summary: A boring film that fails to capture our interest soon enough
Review: "The Order" is a rather boring movie that fails early one to get the audience involved in a convoluted religious story. I starting watching this 2003 film thinking it was some sort of attempt to do a film of a Dan Brown novel without using a Dan Brown novel (like "Jezebel" beating "Gone With the Wind" to the big screen) because all I knew was that it was about a priest, Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) trying to solve a murder with all sorts of connections to the Catholic Church. Then I noticed Mark Addy was in the film playing Thomas Garrett, another member of Alex's order, the Carolingians (an order that supposedly makes the Jesuits look like drop outs), and remembered they were in "A Knight's Tale" together. Then I looked at the female lead in the film, Shannyn Sossamon as Mara Sinclair and thought that she looked a lot like the girl in "A Knight's Tale." Of course, she is, and the writer-director of "The Order" is Brian Helgeland, the writer-director of "A Knight's Tale." So now I am watching this film and wondering how these four people got together to make a film that could not have less in common with their previous collaboration. Maybe "The Order" would work better with a different cast because that fact keeps getting in the way. But by the time I had put those connections together I was already rather disinterested in the story. The head of the Carolingians is killed by a Sin Eater (Benno Fürmann), which has all sorts of religious and historical significance. Alex goes after the Sin Eater, intending to kill him, only to find the tables turned on him in a rather interesting way, but for a lot of viewers I bet it will be too late. In other words, if this movie was on television, a lot of viewers would have changed channels before it got to the part where the twist is revealed. But when you pay to watch something you tend to stick it out to the end (which explains why I watched it all and my wife went to bed). The story of the Sin Eater's origin is probably the most interesting scene in the film, but when the best scene in the film is a flashback, that is not a good thing. If Brian Helgeland has ditched the Mara character, so that the audience was not expecting her and Alex to end up in bed together, despite the collar he is usually wearing, this film might have worked better. There is a tendency to want to compare this film with "The Exorcist," but actually it reminded me more of "The Last Temptation of Christ" (think about it, I am not off the wall here). I was almost going to add another star to this one until the Alex-Mara sub-plot picked up steam again and effectively derailed the last half of the film. Picking up the pacing for the first half hour would have helped as well. There is a good idea here buried beneath all of the interpersonal angst of Alex's character, but in the end "The Order" simply does not work and the fault lies with Helgeland's writing half. Of course, given that he did the superb adaptations of "L.A. Confidential" and "Mystic River," this is rather surprising conclusion to reach. The DVD includes a series of deleted scenes that make it clear this movie could have moved even slower and been even less interesting, and in the end "The Order" is one of those films where the trailer is a lot more interesting than the actual film, which is one of the greatest sins in the cinema today.
Rating:
Summary: god hates this movie because it is a crappy movie
Review: If you are like me, after watching the first 15 minutes you'll get that "oh man, this movie isn't looking too good." Hopefully, unlike me, you'll immediately pop the movie out and throw it from the nearest window. It is god-awful(pun intended). This movie is like se7en, except for the good acting, original plot, etc. Basically, its dark and dark for good reason, to cover up the bad acting. Also, if you think there's a cliche coming in the next scene, you got it. The plot in a nutshell is this: You have the standard turn down of immortality from a wierdo, then said wierdo kills the priest's sex-kitten; like the priest didn't see that coming! The characters also make the standard idiot decisions in movies. If they are about to leave a place of unspeakable evil where everyone wants to kill them, one of them decides to go back in alone. ARGGGH!!!1 I can't tell you how it ends because, guess what, I took it out 15 minutes before the end. I'm glad I saved those 15 minutes. Trust me, this movie sucks, don't go near it.
Rating:
Summary: OUT OF ORDER
Review: Brian Helgeland the director has given us this film, A KNIGHT'S TALE and Mel Gibson's PAYBACK. Helgeland the writer has given us MYSTIC RIVER and LA CONFIDENTIAL. Maybe he should stick to writing, as his screenplay for this movie is so shoddily written, it makes the film incoherent, dull, laughable and ultimately unsatisfying.
Helgeland has reunited three of his stars from A KNIGHTS TALE: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy and Shannon Sossamyn. Ledger and Sossamyn have the looks to be stars; Addy has the buddy support syndrome down pretty pat.
Now, what this film is about ultimately is a person called a "Sin Eater." This mysterious figure eats the sins of those who have been ostracized or condemned by the church, but one never knows whether this is a good or bad character. Helgeland's script also numbs this. The inclusion of the little boy and girl demons is never explained; there are some really dull sequences and the strange bar in the Vatican wholly incredible.
Peter Weller's bald cardinal wants to be Pope is also poorly written and mediocrally performed.
Ledger has one very effective scene that occurs with the apparent suicide of his love. It's the strongest acting moment in the film.
Sossamyn is beautiful for sure, and plays her strange part rather well (why did she try to kill Ledger? It's never fully explained).
Addy and Ledger's chemistry is not as effective as it was in Knight's Tale.
In this time of troubles for the Catholic Church, a film like THE ORDER will certainly not benefit their credence in the religious community. Ledger's fall from grace likewise paints a poor portrait of the clergy.
THE ORDER is not a horrible film, but it's not all that great either.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! Vatican City has a Secret Rave Bar?
Review: There's a plausible premise for a horror film in this hodge podge of a movie - unfortunately, any discovery of it is three or four script rewrites beyond the version currently being served up. Even if you can wait till the third act, when the movie starts to pick up steam and supplies a little intrigue, you still have to sit through a number of ridiculously stultifying scenes and some of the most god-awful, dull dialogue imaginable for the first hour. The directorial and writing lapses are so shoddy and glaring they're near unforgivable - but don't take my word for this - just look at the actors' embarrassed faces as they mumble through this stuff.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent movie
Review: I found the order to an exceptional movie. Despite appearances "The Order" is not a movie about the Catholic Church. It is a story where the Church plays a character so to speak. There were some plot points that were predicatable but I found that they did not detract from the movie in the slightest. I was pleased with the movie and found it quite refreshing that the movie was not preachy (it was neither pro church or anti church). I recommend it to anyone who enjoys movies such as Underworld, Sixth Sense and Others.
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