Chapter 27
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Metascore
32 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 19 Critics What's this?

User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 18 Ratings

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  • Summary: On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shocked the world by murdering the beloved purveyor of peace, 40-year-old musician and activist John Lennon, outside The Dakota, his New York apartment building. Chapman's motives were fabricated from pure delusion, fueled by an obsession with the fictional character Holden Caulfield and his similar misadventures in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. In one instant, an anonymous, mentally unstable 25-year-old, a socially awkward Beatles fan who had fluctuated between idealizing Lennon and being overcome with a desire to kill him, altered the course of history. Jared Leto, 60 pounds heavier for the role, bears an uncanny physical resemblance to the real Chapman, who remains incarcerated in Attica Correctional Facility on a guilty plea. Aside from a Larry King interview in 1992, he has never spoken with the media. However, Chapman did reveal the mechanics of his unraveling over three fateful days in New York City to crime journalist Jack Jones. Those interviews were published in 1992 as Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, a book of Chapman's recollections of his unthinkable act of violence. From this text, the film Chapter 27 is based. (Peace Arch Entertainment)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 19
  3. Negative: 8 out of 19
  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    75
    By the end of this modest, strange venture, Leto made me believe it was worth being forced to hang out on the sidewalk with this man, if only to get a creeping sense of what that might’ve been like.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Joel Selvin
    50
    An uncomfortable ride.
  3. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    38
    Judah Friedlander and Lindsay Lohan are striking, respectively, as a Lennon paparazzo and a fan creeped out by Chapman.
  4. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    38
    Don't hammer this film for trying to get inside the head of Mark David Chapman before he shot John Lennon outside the rock legend's New York apartment on December 8th, 1980. Hammer it instead for failing to do so with any depth or insight.

See all 19 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6
  1. JasminS.
    10
    People should give this movie a chance! Brilliant performance by Jared Leto!
  2. Robin
    6
    Jared Leto disappears into Chapman, and is pathetic and deranged without going too far over the top. Lohan is generally unconvincing, but stays in her place. As a film, it's well produced - direction, music, editing and photography. It's interesting, but I doubt if it can be called entertaining.… Expand
  3. KartikS.
    6
    while in no means is this the best movie around, I think that people are being too harsh on this film. This accurately depicts what happened during those three days, and that's all he was trying to accomplish; recreate John Lennon's death and the events leading up to it. That is all he was trying to do.… Expand
  4. JayJ
    0
    Boring, awful and unnecessary. Leto is boring as Lennon's murderer and his performance is without substance. Jarrett P. Shaeffer strikes out in his film making debut. We learn nothing about why Chapman murdered Lennon and that is sad.A pathetic excuse for a movie that belongs in the trash bin.… Expand

See all 6 User Reviews

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