11-11-11 (2011)

Foremost, an introduction for "the uninitiated" ones. Various years ago, a "new age" (to call it on some way) movement around the numbers 11:11 began to form, because many people were finding them in their clocks (and other everyday occurrences) with a frequency which exceeded the simple random...like if it was a cosmic message of an uncertain meaning. So, the "experts" on these subjects started to form a complex mythology over those numbers (and other similar ones, such as 12:34, 2:22, etc.), which suggested supernatural influences, heavenly entities and of course, prophecies related to the dates including those numbers. Independently from the legitimacy of that movement (which, in my humble opinion, is as credible as the "crowd demons" and the study of the "rods"), director and screenwriter Darren Lynn Bousman decided to make a movie focused on that subject in order to take advantage of the closeness to November 11th, 2011 (11-11-11). Leaving the fact that the date came and went away without any apparent consequence aside, 11-11-11 is a mediocre horror film.

There are some good ideas in the screenplay from 11-11-11, and a honest intention of merging the spiritual beliefs with a pragmatic and skeptical point of view. However, Bousman did not know how to exactly conciliate the 11-11-11 mythology with its dialectical experiments about religion and divine (or satanic) influence, and as a consequence, the screenplay quickly degenerates into a confusing combination of dull conversations between the main character and his brother, and various attempts to scare us with the sinister entities which round the characters. To be honest, Bousman's direction could achieve some genuine "old school" shocks, without digital effects nor melodramatic exaggerations.

Besides, I have to mention that I liked the ending, when the loose ends are tied and the importance of the date, as well as of the cosmic messages received by the main character, are revealed. However, that is made with the old trick of repeating various scenes in order to, retrospectively, make us notice of their importance and their function in the screenplay's puzzle; but I felt that as a weak effort from the movie to say "See? Everything was planned from the beginning!", while the sensation 11-11-11 left on me is the one of being an improvised and whimsically built story with various elements which never totally fit into the screenplay. For the rest, the performances are functional, the atmosphere feels appropriately somber and the cinematography creates a moderate suspense.

In conclusion, I can give 11-11-11 a slight recommendation because it has some positive elements. However, I found it occasionally a bit boring, and I think that the screenplay feels generally too forced in order to be genuinely satisfactory.

Fmovies: 11:11 seems to be a real phenomenon, but this movie has no correlation to those beliefs or possibilities. In that sense, it was poorly researched. I Think the idea is good, but here it was almost thrown together and poorly thought-out. The movie seems jumpy and quite random, the characters have no depth,and scenes lack flow. With bad make-up/costume design, low budget special effects, and sometimes pointless dialogue, I was almost distracted from the story. There was enough monotone content, with a few attempts to startle the audience, to keep me until the fairly predictable end. I really wouldn't recommend this to anybody... maybe a study on "How we could have made this movie better" for film students.

I had hope for director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw 2-4), since Repo! The Genetic Opera was a flawed but interesting experiment and his Mother's Day remake was actually pretty much excellent IMHO. But alasÂ…bad movie is bad. Bousman's directing skils aren't even the real problem here (the film is shot decently and is at times pretty atmospheric), but near everything else is... There is hardly enough story here to warrant a half hour Twilight Zone segment, let alone a feature film. For an hour, the same things happen over and over again, even going so far that 2 characters have the exact same conversation no less than 3 times. Acting is hammy at best, especially from the lead actor, who's film-noir detective like voice-over nearly takes the film into the realm of parody. The music is constanty omnious, even when nothing remotely creepy is happening. The finale is actually pretty OK and I actually liked the ending, but the makers damn near give us the resolution of the movie in a powerpoint presentation with the director shouting "See? See what we did there???" I actually had quite some fun watching this, giggling at how bad this all was. And I admit I jumped a few times. Just make sure you don't go out of your way to see this. It is a deeply silly film.

11-11-11 fmovies. Personally, being obsessed to the whole repetitive numbers made me very excited about this movie. I was really waiting for it to be released! And that's probably why it was a big disappointment for me. The idea of the repetitive numbers was a new unexplored theme and unfortunately it got spoiled with this movie. Very weak acting with obvious predictable flow of the story, combined with cheap visual effects and make up, all built for the failure of this movie. Not to mansion the off topic ending which was a hopeless trial to give a lasting final impression. Seriously the whole religion thing in those movies is a pathetic try from their writers to utilize people's passions towards their beliefs to make free advertisement for the movies! P.S. the only reason I gave the movie 2 stars out of 10 is for it's title nothing more nothing less.

American writer and atheist, Joseph Crone, receives word from his estranged brother, that his father is dying. He travels to Spain to see his father on his death bed, where he discovers that his younger brother has followed his fathers calling and become a catholic Pastor. Together they have established their own chapel on the grounds of their family home. Joseph's life has been plagued with strange happenings and tragedies, which seem to be connected to the number 11. His intrigue soon uncovers deeper mythological and religious significance to the number and possibly his family.

11-11-11 is written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, who previously brought us Saw 2 – 4 and the superb 2010 remake of Mothers Day. Bousman has made skillful use of popular synchronicity around the number 11, where numerologists and string theorists believe that events linked to the time 11:11 appear more often than can be put down to mere chance or accident and has great symbolism in the universe.

The basic idea for the movie is engaging with lots of potential, unfortunately, this is where the films merits end. The plot becomes tedious and bland fast, holding this pace for the majority of the film. The scares consist of frightening faces appearing in the shadows or windows, but they fail to show any snap or shock value, becoming repetitive and tiresome early on. The special effects, especially the costumes and make up, feel amateurish and almost laughable a times. The acting and dialogue is decidedly mediocre, the characters are difficult to like or relate to in many ways. The twist ending of the movie was better than expected, however, it does not make up for its unexciting story and production short comings. Overall a great idea, wasted.

This movie was just TERRIBLE. I got an advanced copy and what a complete waste of time. This was solely a gimmick for 11/11/11. The people who wrote this were just looking for a way to make money on a movie and what they came up with was the weakest plot somehow tied to religion and a number.

But guess what, the number has nothing to do with this movie. They could have easily made this movie without all of the number references. They also could have easily made this movie better without such a loose plot, however it was extremely hard to follow or figure what was going on.

Then they finally tell you what is going on like you are a child, flashing back to scenes that you just saw and don't need to be retold. Overall, this movie didn't even give the satisfaction of even coming off as a scary movie, like it advertises.

The scares were weak and overplayed. The best part was maybe the crazy old man, but that is even stretching it for me. Just say no, I wish I did.