Truly Dreadful Film

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I had an Uncle John once. He was rich and he bought us things. Until......Well, that's family drama and I probably best not lay it all out for you. THIS Uncle John is much different. At least, I hope.Two stories collide here. One: Title Character has to deal with both one dead bully and the deceased's brother. And two: a budding relationship in the workplace. Feel these don't belong together? Yeah, I agree.But, it works, nonetheless. Both intersect as said Uncle brought up the male-half of the couple. It's well-shot, acted, made and interesting. Is it horror? Not sure. Has horror elements, though - dead bodies, murder, cover-ups, police investigations, etc. I was kinda duped, though. I subscribe to SHUDDER, a "horror" channel via my Amazon Prime membership and I get a ton of my horror via that service. This was promoted on there and I'm always keen to new (to me) scary movies. It's not really horror - well, maybe 10%. Mostly it's a drama. And comedy. The other half story involving the couple definitely has an absolute star in the making: Not-Mark Duplass. He was funny and charismatic as hell. I *could* watch an entire movie based on his comedic timing and romantic endeavors. Recommended, but be prepared for an extreme slow-burn "drama/comedy/horror." It's not for everyone, but it's still realistic and suspenseful at times. Not to mention, Not-Mark Duplass and Uncle John, himself, is worth the whole trip.***Final thoughts: I guess the joke's old, or so a coworker told me, but when I heard it in this movie, I laughed so hard, I had to post it online immediately. It got a huge response, all-of-a-sudden and one of my biggest posts to date. Don't want to ruin/spoil it here, but suffice to say: Listen to your doctor!

I watch this knowing nothing about it as I like to do with smaller, indie type films.I watched this expecting a horror movie, it isn't. The acting was fantastic, especially John Ashton who I hadn't seen since way back when he was in Beverly Hills! The pacing was slow but kept me glued the whole time. The sub story which runs along separately from the main story was great. Casting was perfect. Could quite easily pass as a Cohen Bros film, very Fargo-ish. The last 20 minutes are so tense my heart was thumping! Beautifully shot, I will be checking out the director's other work real soon and I just hope this gets a UK blu ray release. A real gem of a film that looks great, sounds great and shows yet again that you don't need £100 million to make a great film! Bravo!

Maybe it's a good movie maybe it's not. Hard to tell as it has the worst sound editing of any movie ever. When there's dialog you have to crank volume to 11 to hear anything and when there's not, it's so bizarrely loud it actually rattles the windows.Others have noted the 'deliberate', 'slow', 'patient' pace of the movie. Short form, it's boring. Bad writing that can't or won't fill in anything and instead the 'story' relies on the audience to sort of imagine or write their own story and backstory in their heads. And of course long long stretches of sad indie music and tinkling piano keys.Dunno, maybe this blend of art-house indie mumblecore is for some people.

John Ashton is one of those supremely gifted character actors that constantly find themselves in movies not quite worthy of their talents. The litmus test is this: Search through Ashton's film resume here on IMDb and find movies you've seen that he's starred in. His wide-eyed, wizened face has been endearing you longer than you may realize (his most famous turn has got to be as Judge Reinhold's gruffly sardonic mentor in "Beverly Hills Cop"). His comedic delivery is often so dry it crackles.This makes him the perfect find for the title role in director Steven Piet's surprisingly engaging, often very funny thriller "Uncle John." The film begins with John hauling away and burning a body in one of his fields on his rural Illinois farm. The victim turns out to be a guy named Dutch who (from the vitriol spouted by almost everyone in the small town) people despised --- and even more so when he found religion and embarked on the not-too-smart idea of going from door to door and "apologizing" for his past sins.Piet and co-writer Erik Crary's script is rather bold in its execution however, because it doesn't just stick with John and his quietly engrossing story. The writers ping-pong constantly to another plot revolving around John's nephew (Alex Moffat) and a co-worker he's tentatively courting (Jenna Lyng) at a small commercial ad agency in Chicago. For a good part of the film, you'll wonder what the hell this plot has to do with the A-story, but after a while you won't care: Moffat and Lyng have such an electric chemistry and their dialogue is so real, so drop-dead funny at times, that it's just a joy to watch (the B-story actually does provide a lot of insight into John's character, though it's not really needed thanks to Ashton's skill).It's one of those two-trains-speeding-down-the-track-rolling-right-for-each-other-type scripts (think "No Country for Old Men," though not on that scale, obviously). And of course there's a time bomb at the collision point, and quite a menacing one, in Ronnie Gene Blevins, who plays the dead guy's angry, redneck, slightly-psychotic younger brother.It all comes together because of Ashton, however. As per usual, he conceals virtually everything he's feeling, but in that cunningly transparent way that lets you into his subconscious --- whether you want to be there or not. He tells you everything you need to know about his life, his dead wife (who Dutch was snaking), and his sense of morality without saying much at all. It's all in that face and those eyes, which have just gotten more expressive with time."Uncle John" also gets the look, feel, and cadence of rural Illinois stunningly right. The diner scenes with John's daily cronies (Don Forsten, Gary Houston, and Matt Kozlowski --- all worth mentioning) are priceless and not just in non-condescending accuracy. They're a wonderful Greek chorus. And Alex Moffat's dry-ice deliveries recall David Spade at his sharpest.It's not a film for the impatient, but there's a mother-lode of riches in that there brush fire.