source: Messages Deleted

7/10. I thought it would be a boring movie, but to my surprise it was very tense and exciting and not at all predictable. It's good, recommended. Look.

Im sorry but this was terrible. Watched it because im on lockdown, but what could have been so good was terrible. Police characters were a joke. Ending awful. Obvious who killer was after 20 mins. Just a waste of time. Not 1 star because matthew lillard was ok

This began as a very good idea, revenge on a plagiarist Professor. It, however, due to poor direction primarily I believe, turned into a cliché of a bad cliché of murder mysteries. The Protagonist Matthew Lillard as Professor Joel Brandt makes every mistake possible in his dealing with, not only Lavery and Breedlove, but his on again/off again Girlfriend as well as student Millie Counsel and news reporters who could have helped him champion his cause if he'd been a bit less brusque. In situations such as Brandt finds himself, brusqueness is perceived as 'hiding something'. The worst thing he did, from my perspective, is to not tell the investigators about the similarity between his manuscript "Senseless Killings" and the order and names of the victims, that was obvious (to me) the whole thrust of the series of killings. I'm assuming, at this point that he pilfered this idea from a student's work. Although, at the end, while he's discussing the deal with his agent, I was unconvinced that he had not, in reality, committed the crimes. SO I gave it a 7 instead of my original 5. I like tales that make me change my mind at times, much better than figuring the whole thing out before the drop of the first curtain.

The whole film talks about stealing scripts and how bad films have cliches. Ok I get that it's mocking the whole industry but it feels like the writers themselves have stolen and mildly rehashed secret window staring Johnny depp. If I wasn't so bored and looking for films to watch I'd of switched it off earlier.

I thought that MESSAGES DELETED was a very poor thriller. It's a Canadian film that looks and feels like a television movie, so stilted is the dialogue and watered-down are the thrills. The director, Rob Cowan, only ever shot this one film and for the rest of his career has worked as a producer, so I guess this was a case of him dipping his toes into the water and finding it too cold. I've always liked Matthew Lillard as an actor - I remember him back in SERIAL MOM - but he can do little with his underwritten character here. Deborah Kara Unger (THE GAME) is on hand as a cop investigating a rather preposterous case, but she's a bore as well; this is a film where it feels like everybody left their talent at the door before the shoot. It's doubly disappointing as the script was written by Larry Cohen, who once had a fine career as a director of quirky, low budget horror pictures like IT'S ALIVE. More recently Cohen has enjoyed some success with his scripts for PHONE BOOTH (which was great) and CELLULAR (which wasn't), but MESSAGES DELETED is bottom of the barrel stuff for him.

Screenwriter Larry Cohen has over the past few decades churned out a number of screenplays that are offbeat and entertaining. However, not even Cohen is always perfect, and "Messages Deleted", which he scripted, is a big disappointment. The movie goes wrong in a number of ways. The main protagonist is a big turn-off - he's annoying in ways that are not interesting, and it's hard to be on his side as his predicament gets worse. He's also stupid, doing things no person of reasonable sense would do that get him further in trouble. Though the police are also stupid as well, missing some obvious clues that would show them that the protagonist is innocent of the charges against him. The movie has passable production values for a low budget independent Canadian production, but you don't go to a movie just for that.

This movie for me is something that is bearable to watch, but also at the same time very predictable from pretty much the start of the film. I rented this movie out of the local shop after being very interested by the synopsis at the back. I have to say that my expectations were not met. From the start, when the professor was debating with his student (that one student who was the only one he seemed to talk to) the average viewer would have realised then that she was the one who was killing all these people. This was confirmed for me when he gave her the keys to the storage room. For me this film is bearable, something to watch if you are feeling bored on a rainy day, but it certainly wouldn't be in a list of "movies to have a few beers with mates and sit and watch" because while there are is an occasional funny moment, the movie is ruined by being far far far too predictable. Rating the movie out of 10, I would give it a 3 out of 10. One that was bearable only because I was bored. I certainly wouldn't watch it again.

This movie was great! Mathew Lillard has really been a hit & miss with me in the past, but he was great in this thing! The story tells the story of Joel Brandt ( Mathew Lillard ), a failing screenwriter who is ironical a screen writing professor at a local college. One day after a long day of work he goes home to check his messages. He gets scared after receiving a call from Jeremy Potter, a man he's never met, is begging for his help. Thinking it is his buddy Adam ( Michael Ekland ) he calls him up and he says he didn't call him, he takes it as a crank phone call. But events leading up after the call prove it may have not've been a crank call. Easily the movie is 8/10 it wasn't amazing but a great watch for the group!

This is amazing. Mocks clichés and then becomes them (intentionally and wittily) and eventually points out clichés are fairly accurate. The acting was great, the characters (except maybe one) very very believable and the plot fantastic and creative. You think you know who the killer is (it's really a pool of two or three people) but then you're unsure again and second-guess yourself right until the end. Everything that is said or done near the beginning of the movie is somehow incorporated by the end in a brilliant manner. The whole time you don't quite know what is going on and want to know immediately, to find out who did it And at the end... you're still left uncertain what actually happened