The Nth Ward

source: The Nth Ward

Moviecut—The Nth Ward

The Nth (sic) Ward shocks as well but it is not a virtue. There are at least 8 elements to consider when reviewing a film. Nth Ward fails on all of them but let's only consider a handful. Characterization - The acting part of the film. James Harvey Ward comes closest to breathing life into Kitch, his character, but the whole reconstructed sensitive new age red neck thing just doesn't quite ring true. He is all utes and flannelette shirts whilst at the same time worrying about Juliette Bennett's shoes getting dirty. Still he is working with what the writers gave him and is sort of plausible. Juliette Bennett has the same shoddy writing to work with but simply can't rise to the challenge. Dialogue delivery is stilted and lacking credibility. It is possible to fill a column about Bennet's on screen presence but let's concentrate on one tell tale trait. She doesn't know what to do with her hands! Scene after scene sees her fumbling with her hands just not quite certain as what to do with them. It's sort of embarrassingly painful to watch and the benchmark of her ability as displayed in this film. Plot - There is no plot. There are several unrelated and disjointed subplots. These include the supernatural, corrupt business dealings, environmental issues, a budding romance, an inter-racial family drama and so on. None of these is adequately explored or developed and make for a disjointed, fragmented and ultimately unsatisfying whole. Setting - It's New Orleans for goodness sake! I know that it is post-Katrina but still, it's The Big Easy. Nth Ward could have been set anywhere. Apart from one of the many subplots concerning Voodoo and some footage of a brass band nothing of exotic, sweaty, historical, exciting, culturally rich, mysterious New Orleans makes it on to the screen. New Orleans itself contributes little or nothing to the film and this a sinful omission.

What a waste of time this move was. Loaded with horror cliches, awkwardly bad dialogue, mediocre acting, and only one saving grace: the too-few scenic shots of New Orleans and San Francisco. Don't recommend unless you've exhausted all other options.

Bad Boy Bubby is a film that can shock. This is one of its virtues. Nth (sic) Ward shocks as well but it is not a virtue. There are at least 8 elements to consider when reviewing a film. Nth Ward fails on all of them but let's only consider a handful. Characterisation - The acting part of the film. James Harvey Ward comes closest to breathing life into Kitch, his character, but the whole reconstructed sensitive new age red neck thing just doesn't quite ring true. He is all flannelette shirts whilst at the same time worrying about Juliette Bennett's shoes getting dirty. Still he is working with what the writers gave him and is sort of plausible. Juliette Bennett has the same shoddy writing to work with but simply can't rise to the challenge. Dialogue delivery is stilted and lacking credibility. It is possible to fill a column about Bennet's on screen presence but let's concentrate on one tell tale trait. She doesn't know what to do with her hands! Scene after scene sees her fumbling with her hands just not quite certain as what to do with them. It's sort of embarrassingly painful to watch and the benchmark of her ability as displayed in this film. Plot - There is no plot. There are several unrelated and disjointed subplots. These include the supernatural, corrupt business dealings, environmental issues, a budding romance, an inter-racial family drama and so on. None of these is adequately explored or developed and make for a disjointed, fragmented and ultimately unsatisfying whole. Setting - It's New Orleans for goodness sake! I know that it is post-Katrina but still, it's The Big Easy. Nth Ward could have been set anywhere. Apart from one of the many subplots concerning Voodoo and some footage of a brass band nothing of exotic, sweaty, historical, exciting, culturally rich, mysterious New Orleans makes it on to the screen. New Orleans itself contributes little or nothing to the film and this a sinful omission. And on we could go. Nth Ward doesn't present shocks but it is a shocker. Oh, and to those who have awarded this movie 10s, this is not helpful. It means that you are pegging Nth Ward at the same level as Angel Heart which utilized New Orleans beautifully, starred Robert de Nero and Mickey Rourke at their peak and saw Lisa Bonet break through as an great performer. Angel Heart is everything that Nth Ward isn't. This is an empirical reality but you are denying it.

There is no great script on corruption, no great lead actress, no superb direction, no nothing! Nada, nilch, zip! Perhaps the actor who played the hero, Skitch or Hitch or what ever his name was deserves a mention for at least holding his head above the mass of wood call acting. The script, written by the director, forgot to even attempt at a logical ending (among other coherent dialogue) - wham the corrupt Mayor dies & suddenly we are in happy happy land! Uh, what about the corrupt other folks, the heroes job, the...oh never mind. I figure they had about $1,539.49 budget for this & it shows. Really, DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO ANY REVIEW OVER A 4! Oh yeah, my wife & I watched every single solitary second of this movie & I can truthfully say it does not even meet the Plan Nine From Outer Space test, if you know what I mean!

D grade movie. F grade acting. Wish I can get that 101 minutes back. I wasn't expecting much when I started watching but geez I wasn't expecting that. A big thumbs down.

The umpteenth movie to use New Orleans, black people and voodoo to make a supernatural thriller. The lead actress has SOME believability, but the times when she is are outweighed by either unbelievable CGI effects, wooden acting or both. The scene where the mayor falls through a hole in rotted floorboards (even though they're outside) left a bad taste - Madison is clearly 5 metres away when the mayor falls in the hole, but somehow she has to scramble to not fall through, and you can actually see her surreptitiously push herself back to make it look like she's in peril. And then is miraculously saved by a man who is visibly suffering from silver poisoning. Also, the plot tie-up wasn't really well explained. Final thoughts: Meh...

As a Canadian, it's embarrassing to say that this is a Canadian indie. Awful acting, terrible script, bad direction, appalling FX. It's terrible! At least I didn't have to pay to see it - but I would hardly call this "Prime Video".

As a native New Orleanian I hoped this movie would at least be interesting. It's not. The acting, especially of the main character, is so wooden you could hammer nails in it. The movie could have been interesting -- in post-Katrina N.O. an engineer (with the "US Army Corps") investigates the devastated 9th Ward, where large areas are still uninhabited. Her job is to determine if the area can be rebuilt. A crooked contractor and the mayor want to buy the land for some gentrification scheme. The investigator is part of a team; her partner is a sub-contractor who knows the truth but is basically a good guy. There are many idiotic contrivances, such as one woman whose house is immaculate who gets water from her well -- there are no wells in New Orleans; an explanation about the marks left on houses (an X rescuers used to show they had searched a house is supposed to mean the building can be demolished) as being occult; and people disappear. Then there's the Voodoo element, which no story about the city can ever get right, that's about as frightening as a child in a Halloween costume. Turning lights off isn't very scary. Here's the thing: 80% of housing throughout the city was destroyed by the flooding. If someone wanted to buy land there were many other neighborhoods that would fetch a lot more money than the historically poor, flood prone 9th Ward. There were even several nationally covered efforts, like Brad Pitt's program, to help rebuild the 9th Ward so the "gentrification" plot makes no sense. The movie ends with the mayor trying to kill the heroine but getting killed himself, then everything is fine and the neighborhood will be reborn. If you want something to put you to sleep the movie ins available on Amazon but if you don't have a Prime account save your money!