Absolutely awful and boring. It's a wannabe film. A wannabe 'Goodfellas' that came off more like 'The Outsiders' with Hasidic Jews and Israelis. The fact that it's based on a true story is the only way they got this film made. Maybe it could have been interesting if it was told differently but it wasn't. You don't like the main guy you just want to smack him on the head for being such a dumb a**. In fact, you don't like anyone in this film. People don't go to movies to see a bunch of people they don't like in a boring story. It could have been interesting but it wasn't. You really have to wonder what Jesse Eisenberg is doing with his career if he goes from good hit films to this indie turd. Overall, badly written, badly directed. After the Jesus camp horror film he did, maybe he's trying to hit a religious gambit of poor films. It was clear that this film was trying to be poignant and edgy and it was your film student types who thought they could really shake things up with an "unheard of" true story. They sat around drinking beers talking about how they were going to get all of these awards, etc. It's a predictable glory piece that's banking on the fact that the subject matter will get it some awards and out there because Jewish films always get recognition. But, let's face it, if most of the judges at the Olympics were Russian, the Russians would always win. That's just how things go. It just seems that the film makers could have used their time to make something a little less trite. Maybe they should take the Robert Carnegie class or read something on how to develop characters and give them emotional depth. This film was completely void of that. It was just people going from place to place doing stupid and bad stuff. That's it. That's not a movie, that's a newspaper article.

I found this storyline of this film to be totally predictable. Its the same old story of the rise and fall of drug dealers/smugglers. The use of Hasidic Jews as drug mules is the twist.We see the protagonist (Sam, played by Jesse Eisenberg) as a devout, highly spiritual, young Hasidic Jew lured by the promise of quick cash into becoming a drug mule. Initially, he is told he is smuggling medicine from Amsterdam into the US. The typical progression of the temptation of easy money and the lifestyle leads him and his wreck less Hasidic buddy to become deeply involved in the drug smuggling operation. Somewhere along the way, I'm not sure exactly where, Sam losses his spirituality, and is disowned by his devoutly Hasidic family. They become increasingly wreck less, and predictably get caught. Its a very familiar film plot.The acting and casting are decent, but not particularly compelling. Ari Graynor, the girlfriend of the smuggling ring kingpin, is really the only interesting character in the film. The issue of Sam's loss of spirituality is glossed over, when it should have been a key part of the story. How does a devout, strictly religious young man studying to be a Rabbi become an international drug smuggler seemingly overnight? We don't really get much of an answer. We do get some hints at things that reinforce the worst stereotypes about Jewish people, such as "Jews have always been smugglers" and we are left to wonder if the film makers are hinting that Jews will do anything to make a fast buck.So, in the end, its the same old "rise and fall" of the drug smuggler thing, we've seen in films from "Scarface" to "Blow". The reason, we are supposed to be interested is that it involves Hasidic Jews and stars Jesse Eisenberg. WoW!, I'm less than overwhelmed.I found this film to be stale and somewhat trite. Based on a true story, at the end of the film, it is stated that the Hasidic ecstasy smuggling ring brought 1 million pills into the US in the late 1990's. In the scheme of world of drug smuggling, that's actually a fairly small time operation.

Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg) is a young man whose life is run by his Orthodox Hasidic Jewish upbringing. He lives at home, works for his father, and will marry only the woman he is set up with. Everything changes, however, when he accepts a job offer from Yosef (Justin Bartha), his best friend's older brother who serves as the community's black sheep. Presented as a free trip to Amsterdam, Sam quickly discovers that to return home, he will have to carry Ecstasy through customs. While he is clearly shaken by this foray into the world of drug running, he quickly realizes what kind of financial benefit this trade could bring him. He begins training other down-on-their-luck Jews to smuggle drugs and before long, asserts himself as a valuable part of kingpin Jackie Solomon's (Danny A. Abeckaser). But as the deals get bigger, Sam's family life falls apart and he comes closer and closer to the edge as the feds get closer."Rollers" gets some good-enough performances from the cast. Eisenberg brings a certain emotional attachment to the project and does an admirable job of making Sam his own man instead of a Mark Zuckerberg as a drug mule. Bartha, usually the comic relief, plays well against-type and embraces the black sheep junkie with flair. Based on real events, the film's setting is interesting but fails to develop as I would have liked. There's a great story to be told within the framework of the "Orthodox Jew struggles with the abandonment of his family and faith in order to make good money" plot line. Unfortunately, director Kevin Asch and screenwriter Antonio Macia neglect this, the most intriguing aspect of the tale. Instead, the focus is placed on a cookie-cutter love triangle that stagnates the flow of the film and brought about boredom on my part. A refocused narrative could have made "Holy Rollers" an engrossing film. Instead, the final product is mediocre at best.My site: www.thesoapboxoffice.blogspot.com

Continuing his run as one of the best up-and-coming young actors in Hollywood, Jesse Eisenberg ('Zombieland,' 'The Social Network') stars in this true story as Sam Gold, a Hacidic Jew who mistakenly gets caught up in the world of drug trafficking for an Israeli drug cartel after accepting a "medical job" from his friend & neighbour Yosef (Justin Bartha of 'National Treasure').After only about a decade in the film business, Jessie Eisenberg has already starred in twenty films, has headed up one of the most successful horror films ever ('Zombieland,' NOT 'Cursed'), has been pegged as a possible frontrunner for the Best Actor Academy Award (for 'The Social Network'), and has worked under such great directors as Wes Craven, David Fincher, M. Night Shyamalan, and Noah Baumbach. At only 27 years of age, this is a pretty fantastic start to a resumé. Eisenberg continues his run of successful film-picking with this little indie gem 'Holy Rollers.' Many stories are told over & over again and become repetitive & stale unless there is a distinct separation that makes the new telling worthwhile. In this case, the story of a naïve young man caught up in a world of drugs is nothing new. However, throwing this idea into the society of something so otherworldly conservative as that of Orthodox Judaism places the film on another level entirely. The story is told very well by screenwriter Antonio Macia whose only other film 'Anne B. Real,' shockingly enough, is currently residing on IMDb's bottom 100 films of all time. Macia's pacing, dialogue, and storytelling abilities must have improved vastly to rise above such an embarrassing beginning in this business.Rookie director Kevin Asch also did a fine job with this first directorial effort. His grasp on the material and translation of it to the screen was a prime example of what young directors can do to make a film something special. Along with cinematographer Ben Kutchins, Asch superbly captured the international settings the film trots through, including the dingy areas of New York City & the Red Light district of Amsterdam. One issue the film does face comes from its drastically short runtime. Coming in at just under 90 minutes, the film does not have the length to fully flesh out everything the story had to offer.What stands apart in this film, though, above Asch's direction & Macia's script, is the talented cast who deliver superbly engaging performances all around. Jesse Eisenberg has, for several years, been a favourite of mine among the slew of young actors. He, for instance, managed to make an otherwise dreadful film like Wes Craven's 'Cursed' into something at least a bit more watchable. Alongside Justin Bartha, Jason Fuchs (who plays Yosef's younger brother Leon), and Danny A. Abeckaser, Eisenberg truly pulls the audience into the story and greatly deepens it. Without the fine performances this cast put forth, 'Holy Rollers' would have lost a lot of the good it had going for it.Overall, 'Holy Rollers' is an entertaining & powerful drama that goes above & beyond much of its recent independent competitors.Final Verdict: 8/10.-AP3-