Cypher - 3 stars out of 10

Cypher - 3 stars out of 10

"Cypher" failed to impress me.  The concept was interesting but the acting was just awful.  I love Jeremy Northam's singing voice, particularly in "Gosford Park," but what was he thinking?  I don't know if he was trying to capture the emotionless-ness of a brainwashed character but it just came off as bad acting.  The vision for the film was really cool, particularly as the main character is given an antidote and is able to see the things that are actually occurring at the conventions, and particularly what happens on the airplane!  Rereading the synopsis of the film got me so excited, but then I remembered how poor the script and acting were.  The single instance of clever dialogue appears toward the end of the film:
Callaway: "Did you get a look at him? Did you see Rooks' face?"
Finster: "Just Morgan Sullivan, our pawn."
But it is then trumped by the final line of the film, which also happens to be one of the worst lines of the film.  "Cypher" will always be one of those films that could have been great but was so poorly done that it is barely even watchable.