Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

areatw I wasn't aware when I watched 'On the Road' that the film is adapted from a popular novel, and so I can't comment on how successful a film adaptation this is. What I can say is that the film alone was a huge disappointment. It's a slow, monotonous and frankly boring 'road trip' filled with pointless dialogue, drug and alcohol abuse and some thoroughly unlikeable characters.The whole point of adventure films, especially road trips, is that they're supposed to be fun and entertaining to watch. 'On the Road' offers nothing that is remotely rewarding from the viewers perspective. It's well produced and the acting is fine, but the storyline is completely uninteresting and the characters one dimensional. There are many road trip films out there to choose from, just don't waste your time watching this one.

ArthurJimbo I would have preferred that they focused on Dean, Sal, and their communication and search for "It" Loads of fat they could have trimmed from this film. The film fails to pull back any layers to the point that we cannot even reach the meat and bones. It is my understanding the film-makers here went for the story more along the lines of the actual individuals and not quite so much the characters representing them in the book. I personally feel that this may have undercut any possibility this film had to reach any level of the fantastical, perhaps, mystical. I think the actors, aside from fellow that plays Sal, have no sense of being beat or poor and therefore have much less to give their roles. I believe Sam Riley actually struggled as an artist for many years before finding any main stream success. But even then, the way Sal is written, he does not take part in much and only observes. Making a film and finishing it is an accomplishment. Much more so a film of this nature which is asked to flesh out the book and make it larger than life on screen. So, with that in mind, I think its only fair to give this film at least a 6. They fell but didn't fail to reach. And that is to be commended.

ken558 A movie is definitely in big trouble if the cameo roles (and there are many here) are way way more interesting than the movie is by a long shot. And yes, this movie is that movie.It has pretty good cinematography, very competent actors all round. Each minute if taken in itself could be part of a great movie … but string them all together all 143 minutes of it (and I saw the long version!) …. it becomes one pointless uninteresting movie.The many many sex scenes are unnecessary and pointless. It's the only movie that could make Kristen Stewart wanking off two guys, all three totally naked while speeding down the road … totally inconsequential and just plain contrived and boring.If this movie had come out when the characters it was based on were still fresh and hot … like in the 60s … it could have been of some interest. In the 21st century … it's passé. Seeing a bunch of unremarkable everyday deadbeats wasting their pointless life on pointless things … who cares. Deadbeats traveling around doing irresponsible selfish nonsensical things while simply backstabbing and laying waste to one another … just not interesting at all.But the worse of it is, it's really not about the material nor the time nor the premise. The main problem is really just mundane uninspired direction and scripting (though technically competent but not great). A movie like this needs to take on a very different inspired approach that would bring out the freshness and the meaning of these meaningless souls straying in the American landscape in the beat era (and not just come across as ordinary boring deadbeats who you'd rather not bother to know). But the opportunity was lost on the director and the scriptwriter who just did the technically competent 'tell it like it is' …. boring and uninteresting be damned. And well it is. In truly competent hands, this sort of movie could sparkle, especially with such a good cast and cameos. As it is, the cast efforts …. simply wasted.Quoting or mumbling poetry and having percussion jazz just doesn't cut it … just makes it come across as desperate, pretentious, uninspired. (Btw - the percussion jazz was nice, but out of place in this movie and comes across as misplaced and distracting) Truly, what a waste!

paul2001sw-1 In the modern age, time spent travelling and living hedonistically has become part of our standard rite of passage. But when Jack Karouac set off on his voyage across America in the immediate post-war years, he was doing something altogether more dangerous, more exciting; and his fictionalised autobiography, 'On the Road', provided an inspiration to the world that followed him. Walter Salles made a great film about another young man who goes out travelling ('The Motorcycle Diaries', his portrayal of the youth of Che Guevera), but his version of 'On the Road' lacks the same impact. Partly, there's the purposelessness to the story, which the film dodges, not entirely successfully, with the suggestion that the life lived was validated by the fact that it was subsequently written about. Secondly, it seems that at least one idea that's supposed to be animating the plot is the character of Dean Moriaty, inspirational and yet out of control, but Dean, as portrayed in this film, simply comes across as a good-looking jerk. Indeed, all the characters seem a little too good-looking for literally penniless men who've spent whatever little they have had on booze and drugs; and the homosexual element, that was a major subtext in the lives of many of the beat poets, is not absent but is downplayed. Ultimately, the film paints a picture of life on the road, but doesn't make it very interesting. This is "beat" as in "beats a day job", but not much more.