MartinHafer The biggest problem with this documentary from Louis Theroux is that it is very, very low energy...and other documentaries have covered this same fascinating material and infused it with more energy and passion. My advice is to try one of these other films, such as Leah Remini's very passionate and personal series about the same subject, "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath". However, instead of hearing folks talking about their own personal experiences, often Theroux recreates scenes or talks with very little energy or enthusiasm...which is strange because he CAN make amazing films on cults, such as his seemingly heartfelt films on the infamous Fred Phelps cult "The Most Hated Family in America"--and the best film about the Westboro Baptist Church and their hate-filled protests. I have almost always loved Theroux's films...but this one is clearly the exception and I wish he just hadn't bothered.

Sally Sparrow I was really excited for this film, having liked Theroux's previous titles, and having had the cult of scientology as bit of a morbid fascination for a number of years. With the number of titles coming out about the topic - HBO's Going Clear & Leah Remini's TV series - this film should have been much better than it was. It was jumbled, boring, repetitive, and lacked focus. Is this a movie about Marty Rathbun, about David Miscavige, is it just a collection of filmed encounters with angry Scientologists? I feel like Louis Theroux went into this knowing just about nothing about Scientology and got too distracted by their bizarre - but typical - harassment to make the film he intended to make. There are literally hundreds of videos online of people being harassed by Scientologists, that's what they do. It's not worth as much time as he devoted to it in the film. I would have preferred a movie about David Miscavige - you didn't even mention his missing wife! - as told by Marty Rathbun. Disappointed!

wallywalas Firstly let me say that I am a big fan of Louis Theroux's work, this however I find to be a rather large disappointment.The crux of the failings all comes down to a lack of access to the church itself, this meant that other than the odd scene where he meets someone from the church - who is usually telling him to leave the area - he has to rely on the testimony from spurned ex-members. I'm sure you can see just how unreliable these testimonies are; these people have either been cast out by the church or left under questionable circumstances and will have an 'axe to grind' against them meaning they could be all too happy to exaggerate and make up certain elements in order to smear the church for their revenge. However we then go from bad to worse. What Theroux does with these testimonies is to hire actors to create a mock up scenario based on the claimed experiences of former members. This scenario shows the church as extremely abusive, controlling and cult-like, however it also has all the professionalism of a warm up activity for a failing local amateur dramatics society. And whilst I agree that there is some strange and twisted stuff going on inside the Scientology religion, the whole way through I was unable to take the dramatic reconstruction seriously, as every detail of it was secured from people who had a reason to both hate and discredit the church. There are some good points to the documentary, the interviews with ex-members and brief run-ins with current members do contain some fascinating details, stories and theories. Should these be true, the church is even more twisted than I had dared to imagine. The way in which the current members treat Theroux and any of his team shows just how secretive they are which does beg the intriguing question of what are they hiding?In this review, I have slated Theroux's approach quite badly, I do however appreciate that there was most likely no alternative. The Church is famous for their refusal to communicate openly with those outside of its tight-knit community and Theroux is too famous now to get away with going undercover, from what we do see of the Church members in here, it is clear that they would have busted him on day one. So to conclude, all in all it isn't the worst documentary in the world but by no means is it anywhere near the best. The information that the entire thing is based upon could be both flawed and biased and is certainly unreliable. If you can look past this you will enjoy it more than I did. If not, then like myself, you will most likely watch this movie with a heavy sense of scepticism and come the end, be unsure as to whether to believe every word of it or none at all.

Leofwine_draca MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE is a big-screen outing for the likable documentarian Louis Theroux, well known here in the UK for his TV series WEIRD WEEKENDS, which I personally loved. The subject matter of this one is obvious from the title, but the problem is that there are already documentaries on the same subject matter, and better ones too. Even the notorious PANORAMA episode with the on-air presenter breakdown is better than Theroux's version.The problem with this is the lack of really meaty material. You want to see Theroux infiltrating the church, interviewing members and causing consternation, but aside from a couple of arguments in the street, none of that really happens. Theroux attempts to get around this lack of meat by staging re-enactments of certain real-life events and, while dramatic, they're just not as effective as true documentary footage would be. That's why I don't like documentaries which extensively use re-enactment footage, although there are a few exceptions like THE IMPOSTER where it is effective.