The Rite (2011)

The wrong. Now when you begin a review with a play on words like that, one would suspect that the reviewer (me) hated the film. I didn’t. It’s just that the opportunity was there, and I took it. Sue me. But the film isn’t terrible. It’s not great. At times, it’s not even good. But I have seen worse. Either way, I’m going to go ahead and talk about the movie now. The film chronicles a skeptic/aspiring priest (what a nice combo that is) named Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue) who is sent to Rome to study the rite of exorcism, and then meets Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins) , one of the greatest exorcists of all time. They have to exorcise a pregnant sixteen-year-old, and then things happen that I don’t want to talk about in a spoiler-free review. But after things happen, Lucas begins to lose his fight against the demons he’s fought all his life. DA DAH DUN! And despite (what I would say) a pretty interesting plot, the film does get REALLY boring. The exorcism scenes are a lot of fun, are frightening and exciting, and are played out really well. But the rest of the film is extremely slow. This is some of the worst dialogue I have ever seen. It feels like there were two films here, that they were just slapped together. And that, my friends, is not a good thing. But even though the film is extremely slow, Anthony Hopkins is still great. The man is one of the best actors of all time, and even in a bad film like this, he shines. Although you can’t help but see a twinkle in his eyes, saying-“I really wish I was in another The Silence of the Lambs spinoff.” As for the other actor, Colin, he was terrible. He is downright awful in this movie. I hope this kid never gets work again. And that is strong hate right there. He was the worst thing about this movie. And that’s saying something. Really, the problem with The Rite is that it’s just…bad. Not stupid, offensive, mean-spirited, or crazy, just a good old-fashioned bad movie.
4.5/10