The only problem with the whole film is using stock footage of Scientology meetings.There is no actual investigation,except to "simulate" what happens with ex members.But by far the worst aspect of the film is that struggle really hard to actually make something controversial.Its more theatre if peoples natural persoanlities.

Firstly let me say that I am a big fan of Louis Theroux's work, this however I find to be a rather large disappointment.The crux of the failings all comes down to a lack of access to the church itself, this meant that other than the odd scene where he meets someone from the church - who is usually telling him to leave the area - he has to rely on the testimony from spurned ex-members. I'm sure you can see just how unreliable these testimonies are; these people have either been cast out by the church or left under questionable circumstances and will have an 'axe to grind' against them meaning they could be all too happy to exaggerate and make up certain elements in order to smear the church for their revenge. However we then go from bad to worse. What Theroux does with these testimonies is to hire actors to create a mock up scenario based on the claimed experiences of former members. This scenario shows the church as extremely abusive, controlling and cult-like, however it also has all the professionalism of a warm up activity for a failing local amateur dramatics society. And whilst I agree that there is some strange and twisted stuff going on inside the Scientology religion, the whole way through I was unable to take the dramatic reconstruction seriously, as every detail of it was secured from people who had a reason to both hate and discredit the church. There are some good points to the documentary, the interviews with ex-members and brief run-ins with current members do contain some fascinating details, stories and theories. Should these be true, the church is even more twisted than I had dared to imagine. The way in which the current members treat Theroux and any of his team shows just how secretive they are which does beg the intriguing question of what are they hiding?In this review, I have slated Theroux's approach quite badly, I do however appreciate that there was most likely no alternative. The Church is famous for their refusal to communicate openly with those outside of its tight-knit community and Theroux is too famous now to get away with going undercover, from what we do see of the Church members in here, it is clear that they would have busted him on day one. So to conclude, all in all it isn't the worst documentary in the world but by no means is it anywhere near the best. The information that the entire thing is based upon could be both flawed and biased and is certainly unreliable. If you can look past this you will enjoy it more than I did. If not, then like myself, you will most likely watch this movie with a heavy sense of scepticism and come the end, be unsure as to whether to believe every word of it or none at all.

I am a big fan of Louis Theroux, and also enjoy him in this documentary. But it kind of misses its mark. Louis never gets to spend much time with Scientologists (though not for lack of trying), which is sad, as those few bizarre moments are the clear highlight of the documentary. Instead, he goes on a mission to make a vague reenactment of certain moments in David Miscavige's life, as a way to explore the background and motives behind the organization and Miscavige himself. It's not that interesting, and it doesn't really reveal much beyond what you learn from other documentaries on the same subject (Going clear, for instance).The meetings with former church members are alright, and there is at least a couple of really good moments with them. But perhaps because they are not the people he is after, Louis never probes that deep into them. If he did, those moments does not end up on screen.It's a documentary worth watching if you like his stuff, but it's not as good as many of the episodes of his shows.

I watched the movie and then looked at the overall rating and was completely shocked. I knew the movie wouldn't be the greatest for all people but to get a rating below 7 just seemed stupid.There are parts in the documentary in which it seems as if the viewer is invited to believe absurd things with the documenter. For instance, when Louis says there is a car following them and it goes a while with that scene, you get the sense that the editor is trying to make you doubt what Louis says. Maybe he is just getting paranoid because he is in too deep. There is a time in which Louis is trying to talk to the man being persecuted about him also doing the same persecution with others and he (the ex-Scientologist) wants to get out of that conversation while shaming Louis for bringing it up. It's an amazing part because it also makes the poor man a villain for a while. The part in which they wanted to record near the camp at the closed public road and lights start appearing, it is just marvelous.I watched a bit of the other Scientology movie that people say it's way better and I just stopped at the middle. It was just plain boring. So maybe this documentary doesn't bring something new to the discussion, but it definitely sheds a new light on it. The reenactments were awesome and to think there is a possibility (a good one) that those things took place makes you just amazed at what lengths the humans can go to.At the end of the day, it's not just a documentary about a religion, it's also a bit of a thriller. Maybe my rating will change at a next watching but for the time being it is a very big 10.