Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Nitzan Havoc I've heard of Chatroom through one of the many Horror lists I've checked here, and while it doesn't fit that genre description (not even tagged as such), it is a pretty disturbing film, and very well made. As a Horror freak, I watch many many films, most of them Horror, and Chatroom has one of the most original and artistic concepts I've ever seen! It shows a very nice interpretation of what people "look" like when they chat online.The screenplay, script, story and build-up are pretty nice and fit the overall concept. There aren't any real twists, but the plot does thicken at some point in a rather surprising way. The acting is also pretty nice, no more no less. Each of the characters is portrayed pretty much the way it should. I did feel that Aaron Taylor-Johnson slightly lacked the charisma and "charm" to play the role of devious insidious William, and yet he managed to pull it off. Nothing much can be said about the cinematography, as it's only there for the locations and the decoration/set. Soundtrack is also nice...So with everything being mediocre at best, why would I rate Chartroom so relatively high? Again, on account of the original and almost genius concept. It's been a while since I've seen such original and artistic work, and I'd highly recommend giving this film a chance, if only for that.

thekarmicnomad I caught this on TV and had a worrying feeling it was going to be dripping with teen angst or rave on about the evils of the internet. It didn't. In affect this is a simple character study wrapped in an extremely well shot premise.The young people (not really kids) meet one day in a chat room, become friends and you can see trouble is not far away.The difference between their real and on-line persona's are dealt with very professionally and subtly. The colour in the online world is slightly warmer and the characters more openly expressive. It must have been very tempting to use avatars or shoot the physical world in black and white, or something equally as trashy.This vein of restraint runs through the whole film, nobody goes all 'Hostel' or hacks into the Pentagon. The plot is solid and fairly believable. A lot of weight is put on the acting, and the cast deliver without a fault.Well shot, well scripted, well acted, well lit. No preaching, no moaning, no action. I enjoyed it.

Leofwine_draca While I admire the rationale behind CHATROOM, a would-be thriller that looks at the dark side of Internet-age communication, I have to say that it just doesn't work as an emotionally satisfying film. The film grabs the topic of Internet chat – and all the bullying, perversion and peer group pressure that goes with it – and explores it in an unusual way. The participants are shown meeting up in physical rooms and speaking face to face. The idea behind this, I guess, is that showing them sitting quietly and endlessly typing back and forth would have been boring, but that method was used in at least a couple of successful documentaries I've seen (TALLHOTBLOND and CATFISH) so I don't necessarily buy it.In any case, what follows is a psychological exploration of both the positive and negative sides of the experience. At first, speaking to fellow teens allows the participants freedom of expression and friendship, but that soon degenerates into violence. Sadly, there just isn't enough plot to sustain the hour and a half run time, so before long the pacing slows right down and we're left endlessly waiting for something to happen.The script, which is based on a stage play, feels staged and slightly pretentious; I can see how it would have worked better given the physical constraints of the theatre, but that format feels artificial here. There's a whole self-conscious feel to the proceedings. It's a shame, because the bright young cast certainly give it their all: Aaron Johnson is absolutely fiendish in the central role, Imogen Poots is lovely, and both Hannah Murray and Daniel Kaluuya give oddly touching turns.The real star, of course, is Hideo Nakata, weirdly imported in to direct a movie which he can't make any mark on whatsoever. A single, chilling scene of an Asian girl committing suicide on webcam is the only reminder that Nakata's a king in the J-horror genre.

colinmetcalfe Yes you can pick holes at this film until teatime and everybody assumes it is because the actors, director, and writers were not up to it, but I would like to put forward another theory.As with most British films (exceptions being Messrs Loach & Leigh) an audience has to be established before it will be backed. I'm afraid the days of just making a fine film and hoping people will appreciate it are long gone. In the case of this film they chose a young audience and that is the reason for most of the frustrating shortcomings. They figure, I guess with some reason that the film had to be dynamic, action packed and with not too much dialogue to prevent the little scamps getting bored and twittering their friends to tell everybody what a boring movie they were watching.Unfortunately with a film focusing on people chatting online this was always going to be a struggle. Turning the virtual world into a physical location was a nice idea, but it was overused and over expanded. I also agree with all of the other reviewers claiming the relationships weren't sufficiently developed and that too quickly the lead character had the others eating out of his hand, but as already mentioned this was not due to a lack of talent but a conscious choice to make the movie this way. I am sure the writers and the director were more than capable of doing this and if you look at the deleted scenes on the DVD a lot of good stuff is there doing the job.But alas no, we had to have that unnecessary climax and all those visual corridor scenes which did nothing for the narrative. An interesting comparison is with the film: 'Social Network', which is full of rapid quick fire dialogue and scenes cutting quickly between locations and times zones and you have to concentrate consistently to understand what is going on. Something the film makers of this film don't think young people are capable of. To my knowledge this film was popular with all age groups, but yes your right this film was about Facebook, an entity most young people have a stake in, but couldn't that be also said of chatrooms? In short the producers misunderstood their subject matter and their audience and in doing so have missed an opportunity to make a great film and have instead created another forgettable British flop. Shame.