This is one of the finest articles I have found on Chapter 27!!! FOX...not a big fan of your news channel...but I love your views on Chapter 27!!!Lennon Murder a Bore in New FilmIt’s not enough that John Lennon was assassinated in 1980 by MDC. Now filmmaker — I use the word advisedly — J.P. Schaefer has managed to kill him again. He’s also made a boring, unreleasable movie that no one will ever see, except a few members of the press.
“Chapter 27” is probably more notable — as I noted a few months ago — for its wholesale lifting of passages from J.D. Salinger’s classic novel “The Catcher in the Rye.” I can’t believe Salinger’s lawyers aren’t already exploring ways to penalize the people behind this piece of drivel for stealing sections of the writer’s work.
The movie was screened on Tuesday night for the first time. But I’m told it’s been rejected by other film festivals before finally gaining berth here at Sundance.
It doesn’t really matter. Most of the audience struggled to remain awake during the film’s lethargic 90 minutes.
Not much happens. Chapman is played pasty (PERFECT DESCRIPTION) by actor Jared Leto — who looks like a spent a month eating hero sandwiches and downing milkshakes.
He’s adopted a Southern accent for the role, and we get to hear it a lot, since almost all of the movie is either Chapman talking to himself or at others in a monotone.
There’s no explanation for Chapman’s feelings about Lennon other than he thinks he’s a “phony” for having several homes.
Chapman just goes on and on about Salinger’s signature hero, Holden Caulfield, to the point of inanity.
If Chapman thought anything else about Lennon, we just aren’t privy to it. Schaefer gets an "F" for not doing any research or homework.
There are a couple of other actors in "Chapter 27" -- the title refers to what would have been one more chapter in the novel, although this is not made clear.
Lindsay Lohan is thoroughly wasted in a bit part as a Beatle fan who hangs around the Dakota building in New York City, where Lennon lived, and is friendly with Sean Lennon’s nanny.
Judah Friedlander has the thankless part of a paparazzo whom Schaefer imagined chatted up Chapman in the hours right before he shot Lennon dead.
And the shooting is right there in the movie, if you’re wondering. Luckily, we only get to hear it, and Yoko Ono’s screams. Otherwise, Lennon is seen for a microsecond. And he’s played by the unfortunately named Mark Lindsay Chapman, the same actor who played Lennon in a TV movie years ago. Apparently once was not enough for this man.
Schaefer, whoever he is, has not made himself a welcome introduction to the indie film world. Not only is "Chapter 27" exploitative, it’s also dull, unimaginative, repetitive and without any redeeming cinematic qualities.
Leto, who started out with a promising career (“Requiem for a Dream,” “Prefontaine”) basically plays Chapman as a blob in tinted sunglasses. It’s the most inert performance in movies since Kevin Spacey wrecked “The Shipping News.”
As for Lohan, she’s better off in rehab than wasting her talents on this junk.
What could be better than this review of Chapter 27...MADE MY NIGHT!!!!
What timing...Just found another review of Chapter 27....
I love that this movie is getting BASHED!!!!!!
n December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon dead outside the Dakota Hotel. Not much is known about Lennon's assailant, but Chapter 27, a new movie by Jarrett Schaefer starring Jaret Leto as Chapman, tries its best to get into the killer's head. A big deal had been made about the amount of weight the normally rail-thin Leto put-on to play the part, following in the method acting footsteps of De Niro's Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, but little else is known about the film, which is why many journalists and critics jumped on the early screening tonight at the Holiday Village. (The movie premieres at the festival on Thursday night at the Eccles.)
Those with high expectations for Chapter 27 may be slightly disappointed by the deliberately slow and subdued tone of the film, but also by how little of Chapman's life leading up to the shooting is covered. As the camera is kept trained on Leto's Chapman for the entirety of the film, it only really deals with the few days after his arrival in New York City leading up to the shooting. It's quite jarring the first time you see Leto, who is almost unrecognizable with his added weight and Roy Orbison glasses. Just to make sure no one thinks that this look was done with make-up or camera trickery, Schaefer includes many scenes of Chapman shirtless to Leto's new full-figured physique is prominently on display.
A few other characters show up, mainly as Chapman waits impatiently outside the Dakota Hotel for his hero to come out, the most prominent one being Lindsay Lohan as fellow Beatles fan Jude Stein, who makes friends with Chapman but gets scared off by his unstable demeanor. He also has a few encounters with Paul Goresh, a photographer played by Judah Friedlander who hopes to get pictures of Lennon to sell.
Even if you've never heard of Chapman (i.e. you're under the age of 16), it's obvious that he's not quite right, as the film is narrated mostly from the voices in his head as they make suggestions what he should do. His daily stalking of his idol seems innocent at first, merely wanting a copy of "Double Fantasy" autographed, but there's more at work inside this deranged man's head, as seen by his equal obsession with Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye."
Sadly, we really don't know what it is that drove him to kill Lennon--maybe he was hoping that the signed record he got would be more of a collector's item with Lennon dead?--and Chapter 27 doesn't make too much of an effort to try to enlighten us. It's commendable how Schaeffer took the well-documented facts leading up to the shooting and created this portrait, though the way things are shown almost verbatim may also be one of the fim's biggest faults. For instance, seeing Chapman encounter Sean Lennon and his nanny in Central Park mere hours before shooting Sean's father borders on the surreal, yet it's known to have happened.
The actual shooting takes place in a matter of seconds and after a bit of news footage and man-on-the-street interviews, the movie is over, never really answering the questions that many might have about what drove Chapman to this action.
Chapter 27 is worth seeing for Leto's performance (NOT) and the remarkable transformation that he went through to become Chapman (WOW...He ate food...what a star),
but the film isn't that strong otherwise, and its slow, meandering pace tends to be its undoing.F....Jackie and Studdering John
Whaaaaa....Stern doesn't return our calls....Whaaaa
Labels: beatles, boycott, Jared Leto, john lennon, lindsey lohan
