Useless (2020) User Reviews (26)

It's Just Ok

[magoomj · 6/10 · 14 January 2021]

First, I want to say that I love the fact that the horse and rider scenes are authentic - no weird fake whinnying for dramatic effect. The riders can actually ride and all the tack and equipment looks appropriate.

That being said...the acting is BAAAAAAAD. The pacing is BAAAAAAD. The plot is kind of meh. The score is just boring. But the horses are beautiful and overall it's not a bad happy-sappy movie.

Montana is the real star of this slow-paced drama

[Adler-99 · 5/10 · 24 September 2020]

The reviews so far seem to be "love it or hate it," with little actual information. I thought it was fair-to-good, realizing that as an older adult I'm not the target audience, which would seem to be horse-loving teenage girls. The acting is mostly wooden with a few exceptions, one of those being Michael Christensen as the shy but kind, nerdy college student Kyle. The pacing is slow, and more explanation of what makes barrel racing a sport could have been briefly given, because the way it's shown there seems to be hardly anything to it. The cinematography is beautiful and the shots of the snow-covered mountains and and sunsets of Montana never get old. Probably not a movie I'll ever re-watch, but some of the scenery and rodeo shots will stay with me.

Very good acting from the horse

[imdbcom-69969 · 4/10 · 9 January 2021]

Relatively speaking, the horse, Lucky, is acting quite well all along. The script, and the direction, might not have helped the other creatures, especially the ones usually capable of speech. They may have been intimidated by the music though, that totally redefines the meaning of the word "cheesy" and might have been played directly on stage in an attempt to stimulate the actors. Still, I managed to go through, doing other benign little things on the side. No one has been hurt in the watching of this movie. Hence 4 stars.

How did she get an acting part?

[starbabytam · 2/10 · 16 January 2021]

This actress had no vocal inflection is boring boring boring. Seen many much more talented actresses who never get a part like this. Smh. Story is pretty trite/formulaic, but that was expected. The scenery was breathtaking.

Ugh...awful acting

[kimieb · 1/10 · 21 March 2021]

Everything was wooden. Storyline was good but there was no chemistry among any of the actors. The horses and scenery were the best parts of the movie.

The acting is mundane. Kudos to Kyle though!

[summervilla · 3/10 · 2 April 2021]

I normally don't write reviews. I was excited to see a heart warming tale about a teen working through her grief. Yet, right from the beginning it was awful. I continued to watch hoping it would get better. No, it didn't happen.

Not sure how long all these actors have been acting, yet there is no real emotion, Or believability in their rolls, happy, sad, or anything, or people actually having a real conversation.

It's like they're reading the script, yet blah, blah, blah, like the Principle on Ferris Bueller's day off, "Bueller? Bueller? No chemistry between the Aunt and Uncle. "Huckleberry Pancakes?" Even then no excitement. No excitement, or enthusiasm, no convincing it's a story being told. The fight between was stupidly done, g

Best actor is the supposed to be nerdy college kid Kyle. He seemed like he had more acting, ability, and showed excitement, disappointments, like he knew how to act. I wish there was more of him acting wouldn't have been so long of a movie.

It was mundane.all throughout this movie. Best part were the horses, and Kyle.

They tried

[mouserjillian · 2/10 · 31 January 2021]

The acting could use a lot of work, there were a lot of ideas but none of them connected. It's like they threw a bunch of plots and shoved them all into the same movie. I do not recommend.

The movie named it's self

[emilylemon-66218 · 2/10 · 6 February 2021]

90% cinematic shots with awfully depressing music. 10% terrible acting. The horses are nice tho.

Kickin back

[guavadad · 9/10 · 12 August 2020]

Nice relaxing movie, great for the whole family. Great Montana scenery surrounds a story of healing. And who doesn't like horses.

One word....DIRE!

[indigometta · 1/10 · 7 February 2021]

As someone else said...I will never get that hour and a half of my life back 😖 The acting...particularly of the lead 'actress', but pretty much everyone else too...was nothing short of wooden. Initially, I thought that the lead's voice was monotone to indicate her state of mind after losing her mother...but no, it retained that boring lack of intonation throughout the movie. Best acting was from the horses and best scenery from Montana...but that doesn't bring the movie anywhere close to worth watching! Be warned!

Do not waste your time. USELESS IS THE TRUTH

[themisadventuresofn · 1/10 · 18 February 2021]

The "star" can not act and is dull and droll to say the least . I have no idea how she got into acting . Terrible movie . Worse acting. Even the music choices were ridiculous. During the riding sequences especially.

its in the title - sadly

[memine23 · 3/10 · 14 February 2021]

I don't recall if there is a min word count but I am trying to save y'all from this one... the budget was $25k - i just read this - well ... i have nothing good to say about this effort

Honest attempt with limited resources

[robxm-78400 · 3/10 · 1 January 2021]

Montana scenery/landscape very good in the movie. Stage looked like real life lived in homes, horse stables, barns and small town rodeo events. The vehicles, trailers and farm equipment all looked like somebody's private property. I watched the entire movie because I could relate to the actors as real people, more like watching a home made movie or video pod cast. Many of the actors appeared to be authentic people with caring moral standards, actively involved in the horse industry, not professional movie actors. The horse riding were scenes looked authentic and not like hired professional stunt riders. This production to me, was an honest attempt to utilize limited resources to create a movie. Occasionally, I prefer a movie like this more than many high budget movies made in Hollywood.

TERRIBLE ACTING

[branjose-53259 · 1/10 · 8 August 2020]

PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS MOVIE. I AM BEGGING YOU. IT IS LIKE WATCHING AN AUTOMOBILE COMMERCIAL FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF. IT WAS POORLY MADE. IT WAS TERRIBLE.

Won't get that hour and a half back

[amy-90900 · 1/10 · 30 August 2020]

Watched it with my teenage son. Turns out it's quite the comedy. We laughed at the terrible acting and pacing. Music was also hilariously awful and THANK GOD the writing was so bad that we didn't have to watch the girl kiss the nerd. Wow.

Regarding the Dialogue / Pacing.

[irvinghousempls · 8/10 · 23 May 2021]

Yes the pace is slow, but after a bit I became used to it. I'm from the east coast and we speak fast. But I worked at a company with operations all over the country and people out west speak more slowly by comparison and with a significantly reduced range of inflection. I've seen easterners who have been relocated to our western operations and after a couple of years, they end up speaking slowly too. That this film reflects that shouldn't be a deterrent to its enjoyment. Regional dialects are dying out in this country, which is a pity. Oh, and Brooke Wilson looks exponentially better on a horse than John Wayne ever did.

Really bad acting

[slragan · 2/10 · 16 March 2021]

I'm thinking that the director must of been on a break during the filming of this movie. I could only watch about 20 minutes. The acting reminds me of a high school play or worse. In acting timing is everything and these actors have none.

Not good

[borinlawren-50021 · 3/10 · 29 January 2021]

Am I the only one who noticed how bad the camera angles are?... Everything was shot way too close. Makes the entire movie hard to follow. I agree the acting and plot aren't great but the camera work made this unwatchable.

Cannot fault the subject matter, HOWEVER

[michaelwplde · 3/10 · 8 March 2021]

Everything else about it pretty much sucked.

Cannot go too far wrong with the MAJESTIC NATURE OF HORSES. They showcased some MAGNIFICENT creatures in the few minutes that I tried to enjoy this film.

And, as my subject states, do not want to slight the subject matter, not one iota.

Beyond that, it utterly falls flat on its face. The actors delivery is wooden, if mechanical, the cues, well, they are missed, to a scene, to an actor, to a dialog. Not sure if it was a directing issue, or a post-production thing, could they have cut it any differently to help with that, I don't know. Just couldn't get into it because of this, the dialog kept stumbling over itself in spite of itself.

Too bad. Maybe better work next time I suppose.

I was excited

[mirandalsullivan · 3/10 · 8 July 2022]

I was really excited to watch a movie that was filmed in Kalispell, MT where my mother was born. I have been in Montana so much it is like a second home to me. I love horses, I love barrel racing and I'm a girl. I'm not riding this to bash anyone, or the movie, but to hope that what I'm saying is going to help people do better.

I was so disappointed. The scenery and the horses are beautiful, but I didn't even get to the end. It was so boring. The main actress that played Jessie has so much improvement that she needs to do with her acting, all the actors and actresses need reflection. As everyone is said it's wooden acting. There's no passion, connection, excitement. Piano music was played over the rodeo scenes. Seriously, that can be the most exciting times, hearing the hose of the horses, the excitement of the crowd, even if it's a small crowd... the encouragement of the crowd, maybe music in the background, voice of the announcer, her voice calming the horse down. So many ways.. And I don't care if they had a $25,000 budget...

I had a lot emotionally invested in this movie, I wanted it to be good and it could have been. I even read all the information, I believe it was from the director. He wanted to make a movie, it sounded like he had other failed attempts, it could be because the talent, skill and the passion needs to be so much more. I wish you the best of luck, but take what you can learn from these reviews to make a really good movie.

Im so confused

[ashleighpav · 2 May 2021]

The actress that plays Jessie is Brooke Wilson but Jessie looks 100% like a teenager or at the very most a young adult yet Brooke Wilson is in her 50's can someone please explain how this even works like how did they get her to look so young etc.

this will be stark

[sandcrab277 · 1/10 · 2 January 2022]

Even if you are the greatest barrel rider in the world, there is no career in it...its just a childhood hobby ... if your mom was good at it, remember her for that but move on to your own life and preserve your mom in your heart ... your mom gave you direction and purpose, use it to maximum advantage.

Not good

[Mylksiie · 1/10 · 12 February 2022]

-Acting was desperate -Plot was very cliche and not explored at all -The characters were typical and very 2D -No imagination or creativity was used within the making of the movie -And of course the horse wasn't useless at all from when she got it, that's just unrealistic.

Great family movie

[mwy-75753 · 9/10 · 8 August 2020]

Loved this movie. Great for the family to watch together. The characters are real and you can relate to their sorrow, struggles, happiness and triumphs. Well worth your time and money.

Terrible My horse loving daughter touched this one

[tammy-17323 · 1/10 · 9 April 2022]

Slow. Poor acting. No storyline. 90 minutes of pain. My 13 year old equestrian daughter picked this for movie night. Literally - worst movie we've seen in a long one. Slow. Boring. Poor acting. Didn't make sense. Thinking a 11 year old write this one.