Restitution (2011) Reviews

• An utter waste of time

  HueMann2011-11-27

  Like another reviewer, I would have rated this movie with a negative number if that were available. Never, never, never again will I watch a movie where the "executive producer," writer and star are the same guy who you never heard of before. This movie is an example of what somebody with too much money and absolutely no acting talent what so ever can do. The professional actors all dealt in a professional manner with the crappy dialog they were given, but Mark Bierlein has no business being involved with show business as an actor or writer. His only other movie, "Street Boss," rated 3.1 on IMDb, was another one where he was the executive producer, writer, and star (what a surprise!)probably because nobody else would risk funding the drivel that he writes. I got the movie because of William Sadler and Mena Suvari, both fine actors, and because C. Thomas Howell and even Tom Arnold are OK to good actors, but I didn't know who Mark Bierlein was. Now that I do, I'll be on the look out to avoid anything involving this guy in ANY capacity.

• Please... Make it stop....

  dudemark2012-09-25

  So this movie was really not too bad... And by that I mean that as I watched it, I kept having to wipe the bile away as it dripped down my chin, while simultaneously pinching myself to make sure that I hadn't died and gone to hell. So wow. Really just mind blown. So we've got this guy, this supposed ex- womanizer (a point that was as un-believable as it was useless... We're talking serious beer gut with a kind of serial killery look) who apparently takes his job as a insurance fraud investigator very seriously, to the point of breaking and entering and lying to old women. Then this guy, this fellah', if you will: he hooks up with Mena Suvari using his culture as a lure. Lucky guy I guess. After his dry and slow relationship had sufficiently bored me to death, this fellah' is tricked by his employers and then drugged, brought to a bridge and finally dropped in the water with some chains on his wrists, and apparently a paperclip or key in his pocket. All this to leave him framed for some murders that they - his employers - had to commit to silence people for asking questions about the massive quantities of bath salts that they were shipping through the town in broad daylight (we're talking van loads). Fast forward one year and we have an equally unattractive, boring and useless character as the investigator, but this one is a writer who is investigating the murders of the town's people. This writer pays $10,000 a month for his condo, and ends up getting pretty deep into the investigation, finding out some pretty dark secrets and all until finally he has to save the girl (Mena Suvari), kill the 5 or 6 thugs, and is finally saved himself by Tom Arnold in a helicopter with a sniper rifle. Then, in an M. Night Shyamalan styled twist we find out that he was dead the whole time! No.... No... That wasn't it... It turned out that the writer guy WAS the investigator from the beginning. But he's spent a year training and getting money from somewhere. Its like the Count of Monte Cristo if it was written by a greeter from Wal Mart, which I think is actually the case after finding out that our lead actor who's name is Average McAverageson, was not only the writer, but also produced the movie himself! Bravo sir. You get one star because IMDb is kind enough to have that be the minimum. My theory: The guy who wrote and acted in this movie really liked Mena Suvari (and I mean, who doesn't. She's absolutely gorgeous), and spent 2.5 million dollars so that he could spend four hours filming a scene with her in a bra.

• How dare you, sir......

  lautanner2012-04-15

  The man who produced and starred in this film is a joke. He took decent actors (Et Tu, Bill Sadler?) and gave them some terrible lines to read. Then he had the audacity to put himself in the lead when he has no talent. There are PLENTY of better actors in Michigan than him. But instead of caring about the CRAFT of film-making, he just wanted to fulfill his fantasy of having Mena Suvari play his girlfriend. Mark, when Tom Arnold out-acts you, you need to WISE UP. I am begging you to stop making films. Seriously, your money could be spent on something so much better. Everything about this film is horrible: the special effects, the "action," the cinematography, and the music. The best you can hope for is that the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 crew will get a hold of this and give it the thrashing that it deserves.

• Ummm...wow?

  innocuous2012-03-22

  I never thought I'd be saying this, but Tom Arnold completely out-acts everybody else in this movie. This includes Sadler and Suvari, who are simply outclassed. But I'm willing to accept that all the B-list actors just needed a paycheck, and that Bierlin needed a vanity project. What I can't handle is that, like many of the scripts nowadays, this is just so poorly and incomprehensibly written. Bierlin continuously paints himself into corners and then introduces some ridiculous plot turn or event to get his characters free. Not recommended.

• Negative One

  westsideschl2011-11-14

  Reasons to not waste one's time: (1.) This Kiosk rental rating is less than one because it's not worth the dollar it cost to rent. (2.) IMDb rating was 2.3 out of 10. (3.) Most of the actors, writer and director have to their filmography credits either movies no one's ever heard of or lots of TV videos and shorts you've never heard of. (4.) First 20 minutes consisted of some guy driving around and then getting out to then walk around with a cheap camera and take pictures. That's it. (5.) The editing and cinematography were so bad I thought a high school student was practicing on creating a collage for art class. Poor editing, very choppy, no flow and when it did have flow it would barely beat out molasses flowing across a winter Canadian prairie. (6.) Acting, was this artificial, e.g. stare at the person in front of you and read a line then camera pans to that person who reads their line, and back and forth ad nauseam. You would have sworn their was a teleprompter off screen. Also seeing that Tom Arnold was a main character, poor soul, didn't help. (7.) Most parts of the story were just not believable: e.g. recently dug grave doesn't have grass above it that looks like the decades old surrounding grass; some guy is tossed into the ocean feet and hands bound with chains, head in a hood while his captors are above him in a boat yet he still manages to escape from them. Must be those fish gills we didn't see. Then for revenge he spends a year getting in shape, practicing martial arts and pistol range shooting to come back and kill dozen or so highly trained killers. Unfortunately he looked like the same skinny, beer belly non- athletic person that he was before the training. The worst part was seeing an equally middle aged out of shape Tom Arnold act like a Marine sharp shooter and nail three bad kills perfectly from a mile away. For his most remarkable shot he, for some unexplained reason, is in a bumpy rent-a-copter with a very shaky rifle. Just laughable. (8.) Overloaded with uncreative stereotypes such as inept police; crooked police; business that does some drug dealing on the side which supports the mansion of the son who wants to take over dad's business; cute blond girlfriend who works in the local pub; a few innocent people die as appetizers.