I was really excited for this film, having liked Theroux's previous titles, and having had the cult of scientology as bit of a morbid fascination for a number of years. With the number of titles coming out about the topic - HBO's Going Clear & Leah Remini's TV series - this film should have been much better than it was. It was jumbled, boring, repetitive, and lacked focus. Is this a movie about Marty Rathbun, about David Miscavige, is it just a collection of filmed encounters with angry Scientologists? I feel like Louis Theroux went into this knowing just about nothing about Scientology and got too distracted by their bizarre - but typical - harassment to make the film he intended to make. There are literally hundreds of videos online of people being harassed by Scientologists, that's what they do. It's not worth as much time as he devoted to it in the film. I would have preferred a movie about David Miscavige - you didn't even mention his missing wife! - as told by Marty Rathbun. Disappointed!

This has got to be one of the most disappointing movies I've seen and when it was over my mouth was literally agape at just how bad it was. I should preface this by saying that I am an absolute HUGE fan of Louis and my disappointment was amplified because I was hoping (expecting) to see something on par with his previous work. The film is stilted, disjointed, and feels poorly thought out. The lack of any real new material forces the crew to constantly cut back to the half-baked casting calls and 're- enactments' which never make sense and don't serve much, if any, purpose. The crew seem to set out with no real goal but to create a studio version of Scientology for Louis to take part in. That never comes to fruition, which is a good thing because it was a terrible idea in the first place and a horribly weak cornerstone to place the framing of the film on. Normally I find Louis' mode of interviewing very interesting- his characteristic long pauses and 'innocent' way of questioning his subjects through absolute frankness makes for surprisingly revealing answers, but here it just feels deliberately insulting. At one point in the film, a major player and ex-Scientologist is harassed by some members and is visually upset. Instead of using this to push the ex-Scientologist to another level, Louis instead decides to needle him some more with a not completely unnecessary but unbelievably poorly timed question.Pointless and disappointing are two words that immediately came to mind after finishing this film. Right near the end, the ex-Scientologist that was harassed insinuates that the gloves are coming off; I finally got excited, expecting some big revelations from this man, only to have the credits roll. This film set out with no goal and ends exactly that way- accomplishing nothing.

I've been a fan of Louis Theroux since his humble TV documentary-making beginnings of the early nineties. Without exception I've enjoyed every small screen outing he's produced. Therefore, I was pretty damn excited when I found his latest (and first) big-screen topic was about none other than one of the most talked about subjects of the modern age – scientology.It's one of the fastest-growing religions, mainly in America, but its churches have been spreading across the world at a steady rate. Now, the thing about scientology that most people seemed so bemused about, is its secrecy. If I wanted to know about any other world religion, I could probably go into any library or bookstore and pick up a text on how it worked and what it was based on, i.e. the bible for Christianity. The – dare I say – 'problem' with scientology is that no one really speaks openly about what it's all about, leaving much speculation.The church itself often doesn't do interviews, meaning all we – the public – has to go on is what former members have to say about its practices. So, here comes Louis into the fray. Now, as I just said, the church doesn't do interviews, therefore we don't get any 'official' conformation/denials as to the church's ways and means of doing things. We just get the usual former members.So, to fill the run-time, Louis re-enacts various 'scenes' from what the 'whistle-blower' says happened. These, although if true are powerful, are only one man's word as to what went on. I'm not saying they're false, but, if a documentary is going to be neutral, we're really only treated to one side of the argument. However, of course because scientologists won't contribute this is hardly Louis' fault – it just makes for a one-sided argument.If you don't know much about the subject, you may find it all quite enlightening and even shocking, but, if you're like me and have seen plenty of previous documentaries on scientology, then it's all a bit 'samey.' It seems that the church don't like unwanted press/media intrusion and go to lengths to 'retaliate.' This comes in the form of following those following them and Louis often finds himself on the end of their film cameras, plus a few – slightly weird – people simply coming up to 'see what's going on' – do they have an alternative agenda? I guess that's up to you to decide.Louis Theroux is his natural mild-mannered self (or rather 'persona') making the documentary easy to watch. However, the very subject matter doesn't really lend itself to investigating because we only get one side of the story and there's nothing here that most people who are interested in the subject don't already know (or suspect). Therefore, a lot of the screen-time feels like 'padding' with all these staged reconstructions of alleged events. No concrete conclusions are drawn from it all and whether it's simply a modern-day religion which is no worse than the more 'established' faiths is up to you to decide. If you don't know much about scientology, it will certainly make you think and any fans of Louis – like me – will definitely find plenty to enjoy. I just felt there was nothing here worthy of the extended run-time.

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.