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I thought that despite the decent acting from Collette and Pattison and a top performance from Mark Ruffalo (The Donald to a tee) this was an overlong, confused, lot of nonsense. The main character, well executed by Pattison, was not consistent, and his nemisis Mickey 18, was even worse. (M18 was supposed to be programmed to be a ruthless, emotionless robot but had distinct sentimental characteristics by the end).

The girlfriend/s subplot was impossible to follow. Broadly, although the setting was in the sci-fi-dystopian future, basic human emotions and reactions seemed to be have warped with time; along with, well , let's be frank here - native intelligence. Still, the accountants have thrown a bucket of money over it, judging by the special effects, but it didnt redeem the ghastly mess one jot. Probably the worst film of the season.

Kiran McCaulkin plays a character called Benji Kaplan, whom most people, on first acquaintance would describe as "a real pain". He's impulsive, careless, outspoken. He'll intrude into your personal space, he'll and touch you without invitation in the course of casual invitation. He'll talk to you directly -address you as 'dude' - whether he knows your name or not, whether you've been introduced or not. He's the opposite of his cousin who is travelling with, to make a pilgrimage to their late grandmother's home in Poland.

As the film progresses, and we find out more about Benji. His uncompromising soul searching, non compliance with convention shows him to be far from being 'a pain'. He has a sweet, courageous take on life coupled with profound sensitivity and empathy with other people on the tour.

I didn't understand this film the first time around and recommend a revisit, if you come out of the cinema scratching your head, to appreciate McCaulkin's superb performance, and the subtle wit in the story and in both leads' performances.

How promising is Jessie Eisenberg! Can't wait for more of his writing/directing.

Very strong performances by every actor in this film make this film a good watch but it plods along with unremitting dullness. Nicolas Hoult's character says a line towards the end of the story "I don't think I can take any more of this" and I know just what he means.

It doesn't help that unfortunately, Nosferatu's words are largely unintelligible when he speaks using his native slavic accent, and is almost unintentionally comic, meaning I didn't have a clue about what was happening or where the plot was heading. When he talks in pig latin his dialogue is subtitled so that gives the audience a chance to catch up. However, for the first hour, what is being communicated is mostly descriptive and irrelevant to the plot.

Willem Dafoe's character makes everything clear, and from then on the film moves with a bit of pace and intent. Dafoe explains that there's a prophecy of a passage of three nights choas, but I am sure somehow 24 hours were omitted in reality.

The unremitting gothic treatment sledges you from the start which means by the end of the last third of the film you are simply numb with the gore and have no sensation left for the bloody final shocking act.

The Hungarian/ Roumanian village scenes reminded me of the French Revolution part in the Mel Brooks film A History of the World Part One.

This film is a lot better than I have described it and I just I wish that I had been able to enjoy the performances more and made better sense of the plot earlier.