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.

If a movie could actually be beyond boring, this would be it. Timothy McVeigh had to be more interesting than he is portrayed here because in this movie he barely exists. Alfie Allen was an extremely poor choice to play McVeigh because while he is given nothing at all to do on screen, he is too old to play McVeigh and looks nothing like him. The film is just a montage of trailers, dated wood paneling , seedy bars and diners. We learn nothing about McVeigh or anyone else. The entire movie is the lead up to the bombing but virtually nothing happens. For some reason a romance is thrown in that I don't think happened and Allen as McVeigh just seems to wander from place to place looking miserable, disturbed and suspicious. The movie is so poorly made I had no idea who the characters were suppose to be in real life. There is very little dialogue, and it seems as if they decided recreating a time period was enough. An awful film with zero redeeming qualities.

Appropriately bleak & cold true-tale "McVeigh" chronicles the months prior to domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh (Alfie Allen) killing 167 folk (inc 19 children) in the cowardly 1995 truck-bombing of an Oklahoma Federal Govt building. Co-writer (with first-timer Alex Gioulakis) / director Mike Ott evokes decent foreboding as McVeigh & accomplice Terry Nichols (Brett Gelman) build their bomb with no apparent direct support or direction from the wider neo-nazi community represented by Tracy Letts & Anthony Carrigan - tho Ott does ambiguously hint at that possibility. Well performed & well made, it still leaves the feeling that this awful story has more layers to it that are yet to be told.

Seen this and was stoked. With a good cast but man it was slow as molasses. And I understand slow burns and what not but the writing was just atrocious. That may be too much or too harsh because I've seen way worse but it just seemed that the writing was minimal to say the least. Long drawn out scenes trying to build tension but it just didn't work. Felt bad for the actors a few times because they are all good. Bummer. Six out of ten still because I watched it all.....barely.

Tracey Letts always is good and was able to lead his role, even though it was from a seat the majority of the time. Tough not too see ole Game of Thrones in Alfie.

Was really hoping this was cut from the same script-pages as Tony Stone's exceptional "Ted K" (2021), but make no mistake, this is the Lifetime Channel Presents or Edward James Olmos (á la AMERICAN ME) version of the Oklahoma City Bombing and its principal architect. Totally controversy-free, favoring theatrics and creator's liberties (w source material) with the goal of producing conventional, feature-length bio-pic. DNF.

Found out the guy who directed this is seemingly a DailyWire MAGA type which checks out because it's hard to see what actually drew this guy to this story given how little he has to say about it. Weirdly Brett Gelman probably the most compelling presence here which is crazy because he's an unbearable POS (unanimously).