The Institute

Some of the worst acting I think I've ever witnessed.

A pittyful effort of look smart and surprising, comes out as a leading disorientation and regret. I genuinely believe, Franco did this movie just to be more around half naked women. It may also be a result of beting between two buddies. No story, no continuity, no acting, no screenplay, no music and no nothing. Costumes are nice though...

The Institute is a thriller starring James Franco and Eric Roberts and had me bored, frustrated and simply not interested throughout.

Based very very very very loosely on a true story it follows a girl who commits herself into an asylum after a tragedy only to find out that nefarious dealings go on within its walls.

Franco not only stars but directs here and many don't realize he's been directing for over a decade now! I just personally don't think he's very good at it, and quite frankly I don't like seeing him in front of the camera either.

I get what the movie is doing and the concept is passable enough, sadly the execution is lacking and meanders through its 90 minute runtime at a grindy boring pace.

It has its moments and that finale was quite inspired but entertaining? Hardly.

I'm sure had we known the truth about what truth happened in the real Rosewood center that would have been for a more interesting tale.

The Good:

Decent finale

The Bad:

Simply unlikable

James Franco

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I'll never understand why people adapt true stories and turn them into fiction anyway

I don't like James Franco's face

This is my first review on IMDb, I created an account solely to vent about this movie. That's your first clue... As an avid fan of all things Horror, Thriller, Dark and Creepy, I was really looking forward to this film... however I was quickly disappointed. The concept of this movie is truthfully a good one, and it could have been great. It was however, poorly executed, the script was lifeless, boring and lacked any kind of depth. I was left laughing at certain points where they quite clearly should have been 'shocking' or 'creepy' but the whole thing felt a lot like I was watching a High School drama performance. The acting was mediocre at best and even with the big star cameos, it left a lot to be desired. The film was full of continuity errors, and generally easily fixed issues which would have added something to the non-existent atmosphere the film created. For example the film is set in the 19th Century, yet in a scene where the female lead is shown topless, you can quite clearly see her bikini tan lines. I'm not just talking a little, I'm talking she's just come back from a 3 week vacation. The 'climactic' scene left me laughing. All in all, don't waste your time - unless your looking for a film to fall asleep to or have a good laugh at then it'll be perfect!!

Wow. For the life of me, I cannot find anything about this film I liked. With a cast that should have done so much better, we have to lay blame to the awful script and terrible direction. It looked like a made for TV film from the 80s with its soft focus and glaring backlight. It's apparent thriller theme was wanting and any mention of horror or scares is mistaken. I would suspect that this could be used for GCSE media students on how not to make a film.