Let Me Make You a Martyr

I loved Niko Nicotera and Mark Boone Jr as Ratboy and Bobby Munson on Sons of Anarchy, and have been a Marilyn Manson fan since about 1997, so I was hopeful. Ultimately I wasn't overly impressed with the movie ,or should I say, "film" as a whole, though. It was shot well,in my opinion, but it rambled along and just sort of lost momentum and ran out of gas at the end. It could have been a decent movie with some tweaking on the ending. It wasn't a total failure of a film, but I don't see myself ever watching it again on purpose.

Drew (Niko Nicotera) returns to his hometown after some years. His adoptive father Larry Glass (Mark Boone Junior) is a local gangster. Drew has a thing with his adopted sister June (Sam Quartin) and plan to get away together.

However this means getting rid of Larry, meanwhile Larry hires a hit- man to get rid of Drew.

This is a dull, slow moving, contemplative southern Gothic film that really does not get anywhere and is confusing. Marilyn Manson makes an understated cameo as the hit-man.

I hadn't heard about "Let Me Make You a Martyr" prior to finding it. Nor can I say that I have been missing out on a jewel in film history.

Little did I know that Marilyn Manson was starring in the movie. But when I found out, it did heighten my interest in watching it. So of course, I found the time to sit down and watch it.

Well, some of it at least. I think I endured somewhere between 25-30 minutes of the ordeal that is known as "Let Me Make You a Martyr" before I gave up. I was utterly bored with this movie on so many levels. The characters in the story were lacking appeal, and they seemed like they were just invented on the spot as the director went along. And it turned out to be characters that you simply didn't invest any emotional attachments into; you simply just don't care one bit about the characters in the movie.

And the storyline was all over the place, which made for a befuddled and confusing mess of a story. Which ultimately was the main reason for why I gave up on the movie and turned it off. I could get through it if it was just the characters that were unappealing, but the storyline failed to appeal to me, and thus ended "Let Me Make You a Martyr" prematurely.

This is not a movie that I will be returning to watch again at any time ever. It just have zero appeal to me.

Don't mind those complaining about Manson's lack of screen time. The fact is his performance is terrifying and his characters mostly silent nature and fleeting appearance makes it. What's more they are overlooking a beautiful piece of Cajun Noir that is also a puzzling work that will stick in your head and force you to rewatch it. Beautifully shot it also contains brilliant performances. Think through it and this is a rewarding movie.

Got the movie, because i like revenge movies... It is dark, depressing, surrounded by scum bags and drug addicts. That gets really well presented.

But that's it. The acting is sub-par, the voices sound like they are non convinced with the script, and the story ? well, it is described in the synopsis. Nothing new. (and nothing wrong with that)

I feel these flaws basically killed the movie :

• It is filled with long unneeded dialogues. Most of them don't really matter, and skipping them wont affect the movie in the end. - I got annoyed with Slaine/Hondo first... And then i started noticing the same behavior. Everyone take long pauses to deliver lines, without purpose, perhaps trying to give it a hint of suspense. - Cerebral ? Intelligent ? Not a chance. It is a simple movie, you can follow it even half awake. Presenting the story in a non-linear way does not make it intelligent.

I don't have an issue with slow movies. But this one is slow just because. And that bothers me. 30 minutes into the movie i was bored and waiting for it to be over.

I can't recommend this movie. Perhaps if you like to watch a favorite actor, but that's it.

So, summary : Sub-par acting, boring long dialogues, annoyingly slow pace.