The Institute

I was genuinely disappointed. This then annoyed me....because, well I rather like James Franco. His role in 127 hrs was quite sublime. But in this? I'm still not even sure what this was. It felt like a rather disjointed medley consisting of a ridiculous plot, followed by some horrendous acting and they then thought they could mask it by using unnecessary nudity throughout (and I love nudity! So coming from me, that is a shocker!) but all joking aside, I have to be honest and say, it was just awful.

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.

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

Not sure what they hoped to gain from this movie. I'm surprised at how terrible it is considering the line-up. However, terrible it is, and I wouldn't recommend investing the time. James Franco should reconsider his decision to direct films.