USA today, Boston Globe, and 2 IMDB reviews...Chapter 27 may not make DVD

WOW...Chapter 27's reviews have far exceeded our expectations!!!
This film is on its way from Sundance straight to the trash...We may not even see it released on DVD the way things are going for Peace Arch with this Piece of Crap!!!!

USA TODAY..."live from Sundance on Chapter 27"

Strange name coincidence in John Lennon murder film

In Chapter 27, Jared Leto portrays John Lennon's murderer Mark David Chapman in a story about his mental breakdown in the days preceding the 1980 slaying.

In what the filmmakers acknowledge was a spooky coincidence, the actor chosen to play Lennon in two brief but climactic scenes was a Los Angeles performer named Mark Lindsay Chapman. There is no relation.

Writer-director Jarrett Schaefer says, "When I first heard an actor by that name gave us a tape, I thought it was a joke." He watched the tape for the first time without noticing, and was impressed by the performer. Then he rewound the footage and caught the name.

He decided to hire him anyway. "It's not the easiest thing to be like, the actor I want to play John Lennon is named Mark Lindsay Chapman – but there it was," he said.

He says the actor got the role because he portrayed the edgier side of Lennon, without making the former Beatle seem too saint-like.

"There are a lot of John Lennon look-alikes out there, and I looked at a bunch of them. But a feel-alike is what I wanted," Schaefer said. "Most of the people who make their living looking like John and playing his music portray him in a way where he's six-inches above the ground, as a legend. I was more interested in portraying his cynical one-liners, he was famous for having a chip on his shoulder and saying exactly what he means."

The filmmaker says he wrote to the Lennon family to make them aware of the film, rather than risk them learning from a newspaper. Schaefer says they did not contact him back.

Chapter 27 was named after a non-existent final part of the novel The Catcher in the Rye, which the killer obsessed over. Both actor and director say it was designed to explore the killer, not celebrate him.

Lindsay Lohan co-stars in the movie as a Lennon fan who befriended the murderer. The actress cancelled plans to attend Sundance after entering rehab last week to fight unspecified addictions. Schaefer did not mention her in the post-screening crew acknowledgments.
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BOSTON GLOBE

"Chapter 27," by contrast, wastes the talents of Jared Leto on a story that simply didn't need telling : the murder of John Lennon as told from the point of view of killer Mark David Chapman. The actor gained more than 65 pounds for the role and convincingly transforms himself into a bloated, pale sociopath whose obsessions include "The Catcher in the Rye" and the Bible in addition to the ex-Beatle. Lindsay Lohan is good as a fellow Beatlemaniac, too, but writer-director Jarrett Schaefer never convincingly explains the demons that drove Chapman. The result is an unpleasant act of cinematic rubbernecking that celebrates a deserved nonentity.

The festival prizes won't be handed out until tonight, but by Thursday evening, as "Chapter 27" was having its premier e screening in the Eccles Theatre, there was already a sense that this year's Sundance was over. At a quiet dinner in the mountains that night, held by a prominent buyer and attended by various members of the press and entertainment community, the talk wasn't of films just see
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IMDB reader reviews:

There is not much that could be said for this awful misfire of a film. The sadly untalented Leto is thrust upon the screen, and at the viewers, in a performance that is so bad it isn't even worth laughing at. It's as if Leto was attempting to play Travis Bickle via Forrest Gump. The Direction was also flawed, and relayed too much on Scorsese's Classic Taxi Driver, but I give him credit for addressing the stoic audience at the Sundance Premiere during the post screening Q&A. I hope he has learned from the mistakes on this picture, and is able to deliver something more impressive his next time around. I'm trying to be generous. Lindsey Lohan was the one shining light in an otherwise unwatchable film.

and

Just caught the world premiere at Sundance tonight. At the Question and Answer with the director and lead actor, the audience asked two categories of questions. Either, "what drove you to make this movie" and "what did you learn about Chapman that is not already known" on one hand or "how many pounds did Jared Lito gain/lose to play the part" on the other. The actor Jared had more to say about the hardship of the physical aspects of this role than the director Jared had to say about the "why" of the movie other than some vague attempt to humanize Mark David Chapman and to show that his motivation apparently came from his sick adherence to the words of John Lennon and Salinger's Catcher In The Rye.

But such is already common knowledge gleaned from any standard article written about Chapman's murder of Lennon along with his last few days up until the shooting. The director admitted to no contact from the Lennon family or even with Chapman himself--why humanize someone you don't even care to meet? So, the audience wondered, what was the point? No wonder the most interesting thing to the audience the film was Jared the actor's weight commitment to the role.

Excellent acting throughout, especially Ms. Lohan's work, and solid technical film-making. But nothing interesting, thoughtful, insightful, exposing or illuminating to see.

A film about a madman causing pain and grief to a someone and their family, or in this case to millions worldwide, that sheds light as to how such person got to such a state is one thing, but one that that does nothing but execute a common knowledge play-by-play of the killer's last few days, a "Passion of the Chapman" if you will--and even that gives this film too much credit--does not seem to have a reason except possibly dull sensationalism. I say dull because, if not, wouldn't such a film have been made over twenty years ago?

A well done, well acted wasteful drag of a movie.

F....Jackie and Stuttering John
Hiiii Fred