Self/less

A decent enough sci-fi flick that was entertaining for the duration, driven not by less than stellar performances from Reynolds and Kingsley or a great script, but by a relatively solid plot. There's not been a shortage of entertaining sci-fi movies in the decade, but buffs are bound to run out sooner or later, and this isn't a bad place to look.

Remarkably identical to the premise and plot of 1966's Seconds, with the only changes being more action and a different moral hazard. The fight scenes aren't a problem, despite preventing a slightly more thoughtful approach. However, without spoiling either movie, the ethical problem in Seconds leads to an ending that makes it an all-time classic, while the small change here leads directly to a pretty underwhelming climax.

Stupid title. This had elements of a great movie, but they did their best to ruin it with unnecessary violence and gun play that subtracted from it greatly. It really needed better writing and more creativity. Acting performances and the production quality was good. The sugar sweet ending was cheap and didn't feel very realistic. I really liked about half of it, and was bored or annoyed by the artificial conflicts.

Starts with a strong premise, but really never finds a way to be more interesting than simply hearing the premise. Enough to pass the time, but not much more.

A man wakes up and discovers he has turned into Ryan Reynolds. No it's not a horror movie, but mediocre philosophical sci-fi that quickly sidelines the questions the scenario raises to instead turn into a pseudo action movie

Financed on the basis of the producers' recent success with LOOPER: sure enough, this too is about a real/substitute father who goes through difficult experiences, learns true values, and realises that the best thing for him to do is fade away, leaving behind a pot of gold. It's a poorer film than LOOPER, but the differences in filmmaking aren't so significant as to justify the gap between an "approval rating" of 93% and this film's 19%. Inexplicably, critics love Johnson and despise Singh.

Chris Pratt has eaten Ryan Reynolds lunch,utterly stolen his career niche and rightly so.

Don't understand the underwhelming reception it's gotten. I thought most of it was well done, except for the action climax which was miserably executed. I didn't know right away that it was going to take the typical low road instead of going for an original take on the brain transfer idea. But up to that point, and then once it was settled, I thought the story was pretty tight.

The premise of this movie was more interesting than the movie itself.

What starts on an interesting note reveals itself to be a pretty generic action movie. Though competently created on most fronts, Self/less squanders its potential. It lacks a lot of the flair that Singh is known for.

Self/less is a somewhat interesting idea that feels flat due to bland acting, direction, and editing. There was a million ways to take this story but they decided to go the most predictable route.

It's hard to imagine that a movie could be this uninteresting without being terrible. The premise, more or less "borrowed" from "Seconds", opens up a lot of themes involving personal identity and medical ethics and the wealthy exploiting the poor. None of these are really taken up. At least with Tarsem Singh directing ("The Cell", "The Fall') we can expect some visual dazzle. No.

I'm not going to pretend I didn't like this, because I did. I'm also not going to pretend that this wasn't a wasted opportunity, because it was. It's a really strong sci-fi premise that doesn't get the execution it deserves. I like Kingsley and I like Reynolds, but they don't grab this thing and force it to be something remarkable. And I dislike the fact that either the studio cut Singh's nuts off visually or Singh toned himself down. No bueno either way. It's competent without being noteworthy.

One flamethrower, shame on you. Two flamethrowers, shame on me. I think that is how the saying goes. Tarsem is slowly slipping into irrelevance, which is sad.

Another film from one of my fave directors (sure wish he would make em more then ever few years). This one is quite stylistically different without his usual striking bright colours splashed in all over the place. The sci-fi/thriller story is well done and makes you think of the future possibilities. Sir Kingsley and Reynolds are really good in their roles.

good actors, great plot, poor execution...

'I hope Tarsem Singh gets chased by the gods of cinema for shooting this movie after The Fall.' Even this short sentence has a more twisting plot than Self/less.

I was expecting something else, but this was not too bad, I enjoyed it. It's not so much of a drama as it is an action triller (something along the lines of Shooter)

A greedy rich old guy gets his "soul"--or mind, or essence, or whatever--transferred into the body of a young guy and then almost immediately wishes he hadn't. A two-hour "Twilight Zone" episode, in other words, and not even a particularly good one--everything happens that you think will happen, and if anybody onscreen were smart, things would all be over in a few minutes. Still, it looks good, and it's well-acted, and it's fairly inoffensive. Pain/less, I guess is what I'm saying.

As everyone notes, this thrillerised variation on SECONDS isn't in the same class, being ultimately bland, utterly devoid of either meaningful reflection upon or actual response to, for eg, mortality, beyond the most trivial; despite the fact that the narrative could make such problems quite confronting, the ultimate predictability and conformity ends up making self-sacrifice feel very much an automatic, easy, unconflicted route to a happy (in more than one sense) ending.

really good movie

honestly pretty boring

Art/less and annoy/ing.

Maybe if it turned out Ben Kingsley wasn't about to die, but rather there was an elaborate scheme to steal his body and impersonate him, and he turned out to be the main villain and faced off against Reynolds in his gilded penthouse suite or anything better than the drab locations they chose here- then this have been interesting.

Starts off well, but gets absurd by the second half. Too many dumb plot twists, none of them very interesting, all of them predictable. A ridiculous amount of gratuitous violence. The story hinges on an interesting idea, but it's tacky and jarring in the way it's executed. The science element of this sci-fi film is really stupid but not in a charming way. Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley give great performances, but it's not enough to save the film.

I can be very short: Great concept, poor execution.

Admittedly I hold Tarsem Singh in higher regard than the average person who posts movie reviews on a social media site, but I really do doubt another director would be willing to ask the following questions: What if Donald Trump could experience joy? What if Donald Trump could experience empathy? And, what if Donald Trump had an iota of curiosity?

Talk about your sloppy SECONDS...

rich man uses poor man's body as service. learns capitalism is bad?

Like everybody said, interesting idea, and a bit disappointing that it turned into a more generic action movie. As an action movie it was not bad either, it just deceives you into thinking it will be deeper long enough that you raise your expectations above what comes next.

Very predictable and mediocre. The idea is intriguing on paper, but the execution is poor and lackluster.

12.01.2021 Kartal

1372: brilliant idea!

What do you get when you put a rich, old man's mind in a younger man's body: a mediocre action movie called Self/less. The film falls prey to the predictability inexorably linked to its premise, and the character development/plot is beyond suspension of disbelief. That said, I didn't hate this film. Reynolds performance is decent enough to keep watching, along with a sleek production and a few decent scenes.

eng; [self/less]; ein reicher mann lässt sein bewusstsein in den körper eines jungen mannes transportieren - doch die nebeneffekte eines alten ego tauchen auf.;

The movie is so boring it leaves you really pondering the weird little mess ups... for instance he says "I haven't seen anything like those breasts in about fifty-two years" - despite only being 68, and also a millionaire/billionaire. So what, he had a kid with an older woman when he was sixteen and then never had sex again? Anyways, if it wasn't for Ryan Reynolds I would have stopped watching even sooner than I did, just boring as hell.

started dope with the concept of being an old man moving into a "dead" man's body and getting readjusted. then still dope finding out he's not dead and dealing with the decision to kill him or yourself. but it turns into a fucking action movie too soon and with too much

Definitely something that's been done before, but I liked it anyway. It was an interesting take and posed some fun what if questions in the name of science.

Starts of promising, but somehow it doesn't get as good as it sets up to be.

It's basically the same plot from the Rock Hudson classic 'Seconds,' but with generic action scenes thrown in and no attempt to examine the morals of identity swapping/cloning. It's barely passable as a mindless thriller. This plot has been done with greater success numerous times.

Self/less is exactly the movie you might expect, given its rating, its star and its summertime release: a crude, violent, intriguing popcorn flick. Too bad a better movie got lost along the way. (pluggedin.com)

I liked this movie better than I expected. Much better. Okay, maybe it isn't the best movie ever or even the best take on this subject, I thought it was fun decent sci-fi movie, well acted... enjoyable.

Less is sometimes more. I'm still not sure why the slash is in the title, but I do pronounce it Self-slash-less, because it's more fun that way. Ryan Reynolds does an okay job in this movie, Matthew Goode plays a creepy psycho as usual and nails it. Ben Kingsley is in for a short time and does okay with what he had to do. I was also happy to see Victor Garber again, hooray Alias! I feel like I can't say much about the details of the film without giving a lot away...

Very cool idea for a movie.. kind of similar to Face/Off in a way.. Loved the twist, only some parts of the movie were a little too comedy-like which didnt fit the dark side of this movie. Could have been so much more.

Predictable thriller with no suspense.

i loved it

Entertainment 4.5/4 -- better pacing than most movies... not too slow, not too fast; an interesting story. Spirit 1.5/3 -- ultimately, hero does the right thing and surrenders to oblivion so that another can survive. Sustainability 1/3 -- makes us think a bit about the morals of consciousness-transfer.

Of Ryan Reynolds three films in 2015, Self/less (2015) is his weakest. Turns into a cliché fest with not much room to lift it above the usual action blaster with any special performances. Does entertain in it's light B-thriller way, but that's it.

A thought provoking premise along with some great action scene's, but this sci-fi flick could have been so much more.

Enjoyed this most of the way. It's weak in a few places but overall not bad. Ryan Reynolds does his thing and bad guys do their thing. No real surprises but still entertaining.

A visual genius such as Tarsem should not be directing mediocre thrillers. Skip it and watch John Frankenheimer's 'Seconds'.

Background nonsense designed to be watched towards the middle of a longhaul flight

Very predictable but also very entertaining.

Not bad.