User reviews

I was prepared to give this film a vote of 8 until I read all of the negative reviews. I gave it a 10 instead.

Anyone who would give *any* film that makes it to general release on DVD a vote of 1 is making a political statement rather than an artistic evaluation. On its technical merits alone the film is far better than most of the studio films that came out in 2004. But it gets extra credit in my estimation for its low-budget ingeniousness and its courage. The film is fiction, not documentary, but the film makers really did go to Afghanistan at a time when it was extremely dangerous to do so.

Yes, echos from Blair Witch abound. So what? The differences far outweigh the similarities. I admired Blair Witch but, frankly, September Tapes is a better (and much more interesting) film.

I wouldn't have bothered to make a comment were there not so many negative reviews. I felt obliged to jump to the film's defense.

Me so gullible, actually thought this a real documentary.

Stark Afghan locales are very real, but alas the story ain't so much.

Contrived story and amateur acting give it away. But . . . still tense, involving, ultimately moving. Be sure to check out "Behind the Scenes" in DVD's Special Features: the true tale of filming a feature -- illegally -- in this war-torn faraway unknown pocket is almost as fascinating as the fictional story.

The "money shot" here is every scene captured in the forbidden netherworld of the former Taliban. Apparently, this is the first -- and only -- feature film ever shot here, and you will definitely feel yourself visiting a world unknown.

I think this film was very engaging, the documentary style narrative makes it easy to get attached to the characters, making the film all the more suspenseful when they wind up in a tight situation. I would like to clarify something, I have read other users reviews saying that it didn't look believable that they were shooting in Afghanistan. Well I saw this film at Waterfront film festival and had the privilege of hearing some Q & A from the director. And they really did fly to Afghanistan to make this film, and all of the interviews are not staged. I think the director did a good job of keeping the documentary side consistent and seamless with the narrative.

This is a complete Hoax...

The movie clearly has been shot in north western Indian state of Rajasthan. Look at the chase scene - the vehicles are Indian; the writing all over is Hindi - language used in India. The drive through is on typical Jaipur streets. Also the palace is in Amer - about 10 miles from Jaipur, Rajasthan. The film-makers in their (about the film) in DVD Bonus seem to make it sound that they risked their lives shooting in Kabul and around. Almost all of their action scenes are shot in India. The scene where they see a group singing around fire is so fake that they did not even think about changing it to Afgani folk song. They just recorded the Rajasthani folk song. How do I know it because I have traveled that area extensively. They are just on the band-wagon to make big on the issue. I do challenge the film makers to deny it.

Its similar to how the Blair witch project is set up. Where you have people who filmed footage, disappeared, and all thats left is the movie you see. Rather than being in woods and having something supernatural after you. Your in the desert and 3rd world cities. With a journalist looking for trouble, and resulting in terrorists after him. I was entertained. Thats exactly why I rented it, to be entertained. Its not a Hollywood looking movie with huge stars and ridiculous stunts. Its completely realistic in the perspective the movie describes. I don't regret watching it. Its not a slow moving movie. The acting works in my opinion.

If it wasn't for some immature gullible idiot I know insisting that I watch this "documentary" I would never have seen this comedy! This film is full of bad scripting and laughable moments. One in particular is where the Afghan police / soldiers arrest Don Larson for filming in the streets while they allow the cameraman to carry on filming his arrest and then drive away, still filming, presumably to his plush hotel. Then there's the scene where a car crashes into another car which has been turned upside down and parked nicely on the side of the road without any evidence of it being in a crash or explosion.

I am surprised this has currently got the rating it has (5.8 / 10). I thought IMDb users had more sense.

People are so critical. Yeah, it reeks of Blair Witch but so what? I actually thought it was a real documentary until about 3/4 of the way through. I had heard nothing about this film and picked it up on a whim. Try to remove yourself from any political bias and try to enjoy it for what it is... a nice piece of entertainment on a low budget that does not have the standard Hollywood trappings.

I noticed one user commented that this film was the worst he had seen in a year. That is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. How about The Grudge? Make some sense out of that mess.

At least this film is topical and gives some insight into a part of the world most people would just as soon forget about.

I read the comments before I saw this movie. I think the movie is quite good: it tells the story of a journalist going to Afghanistan. You might not like it when you expect a documentary but it is certainly good for a movie: it is much more realistic then an average Hollywood movie. OK, the cameras shake etc, but that is what it makes realistic. At first I was thinking: who would be crazy enough to do this for real? But you will find out at the end.

And I saw this in another comment: "If you support Bush you are going to love this movie, if you liked Michael Moore please do not see this movie." As far as I know, this isn't the case. It just shows the US from a different side. Not in detail. Just at some sensitive points. That is maybe why so many Americans get upset in their comments? (And isn't this what Michael Moore does too?)

I just got back from this free screening, and this "Osama Witch Project" is the hands-down worst film I've seen this year, worse than even "Catwoman" - which had the decency to at least pass itself off as fiction.

In "September Tapes," a "film crew" of "documentary journalists" heads to Afghanistan - despite being thoroughly unprepared for the trip, the conditions and, oh yeah, the psychotic and ridiculous vendetta of their filmmaker leader to avenge his wife's death on Sept. 11 - to track down Osama bin Laden.

They "made" eight tapes on their journey, which now "document" their travels and, of course, their attempts to kill the terrorist leader. (The eight tapes, thankfully, all end at points significant in the narrative, which is convenient for a "documentary.")

The psychotic, idiotic protagonist - who is given to long, significant speeches that he probably learned watching "MacGyver" - cares nothing for his own life or the life of his innocent crew as he gets them further and further into danger through a series of completely dumb mishaps. I don't know why he didn't just wear a sign on his back that said "Shoot me."

The crew's translator, supposedly their sensible voice-of-reason, does little more than whine and gets baffled as the idiot hero leads them into doom.

You wish they'd brought along someone on their trip to call them all morons.

Around "Tape 4," I began rooting for the terrorists to shoot the film crew.

Just for starters, YOU take a small crew to Afghanistan, shoot a film, and get back to me. That India served as a base of operations for this film is no different than Sydney doubling for San Francisco. Get over it. I don't know what the previous reviewers are on, but I can only assume they'd be happier watching 'Independence Day' while stuffing their faces with popcorn. This film says 'Drama' right on the box. That anyone mistook it for a 'Documentary' is their own doing. In my humble opinion, this film embodies the true spirit of indie film-making. The gun play alone puts many multi-million dollar schlock films to shame. Given their limited resources, I was not at all phased by the rare weak moment in the film. To note that this film condones an 'America rules' sentimentality is ludicrous. This is a story about one man's will to seek justice for himself, and what he believes is a serving of justice for all humanity. You don't have to agree with it - you just have to accept this character's objective for what it is. As an actor myself, I would have been thrilled to have worked on this project. What a roller-coaster ride it must have been to get this in the can. I don't just take my hat off to the makers of this film - I'm throwing it up in the air too. A commendable effort that should be rewarded with due recognition if you ask me.

The movie was completely misleading and the bonus material confirmed my impression that it was a rip-off of Joeseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness ,the River is replaced by a road and the boat becomes a Jeep and Walter Kurtz is Osama.

The claims made on the outside of the DVD box was overt fraud to

take this fabricated death of a Journalist and present it as factual

while some portions have Muslims supporting the 9/11 attacks for the USA's treatment of Muslims around the world .

I alerted the Video store that the movie should be removed from their "Documentary" section and be placed in the War-drama area for quasi fictional accounts of actual events.

The film is made in the style of a fictional documentary similar to Blair Witch but about a guy who wants to make a documentary by going to Afghanistan and searching for the truth about the war that has ensued since 9/11.

The style is gritty as if they were using hand held cameras, following around the main character and his interpreter through out the land searching for answers. There is decent FX, the story is easy enough to follow but with major flaw. A documentary is about a subject and not about the documentary maker so that's where the film could lost me and weakened the premise of the film entirely. If the camera were to be the main character, I think the film would have been more palatable for myself.

Even with this weakness the effort to try to make a film of this style is appreciated.

At first the film started off fine in the classic first person documentary position. However, the more I watched, the less documentary it seemed and the more staged it became. Some of the voice over commentary is dribble at best.

As an active member in the armed forces and having good knowledge of the areas the film took place in, the more unbelievable the story line became. Lars taking all the liberties which he did in the film truly would have got him killed in a matter of days. Moreover, the fire fight scenes we completely staged and dramatized. But the movie is a drama so I guess that goal was accomplished.

If the film was scaled back to Septem4er Tapes, I probably would have given it a higher rating. Once the point of beyond reason was reached, the film makers should have just wrapped it up. Seriously, an American with a camera going to interview the bounty hunters searching for Bin Laden and Bin Laden himself..... I am sure he would have granted the interview if he was indeed found. Come on. The plausibility of an outsider especially an American roaming freely to find Bin Laden is just too much.

I couldn't help to be blown away from this little movie. I see the obvious comparisons to Blair Witch, but films that choose to tell their story through the device of fabricated documentary have few options in which to work. I think that the characters were original and the acting was so good that I kept forgetting that I wasn't watching a documentary. Towards the end of the film I could really feel the actors' terror. I think that the film dealt with some touchy political issues and did it without being too prescriptive or heavy-handed. The main character was a little foolhardy at times, but he needed to be for the film to work... I would strongly recommend this movie, and I often do at the video store I manage.

I watched the first 15 minutes, thinking it was a real documentary (with an irritatingly overly dramatic "on camera" producer).

When I realized it was all staged I thought "why would I want to waste my time watching this junk??" So I turned it off and came online to warn other people. The characters don't act in a believable way. too much immature emotion. for a guy to travel half way around the world into a war torn country, he acted like a kid. and I don't believe it was because "his character was so upset about the trade center bombings".

very trite and stupid.

have you seen "city of lost children"? french dark fantasy film about a guy who kidnaps kids and steals their dreams... I liked it!

This movie fails miserably on every level. I have an idea, let's take everyone involved in this movie and ship them into a hot zone in the middle east. Maybe if we're lucky they'll all be shot and killed and we won't have to ever have our time wasted by them again. Did I mention that I have never been so bitter about a cinematic pile of crap in my entire life? My god, I can't think of anything I've ever seen that was this bad. I'd rather watch Ishtar 25 times in a row than sit through 10 minutes of this sorry excuse for a film. If I ever happen to meet anyone who was involved in this film, I'll spit in their face and then beat them senseless. That's my two cents.

Well, basically, the movie blows! It's Blair Witch meets Sean Penn's ill conceived fantasy about going to Iraq to show the world what the "War on Terror" is really about. The script sounds like it was written by 8th grader (no offense to 8th graders); the two main actors over-act the entire film; they used the wrong kind of camera and the wrong type of film(not that i know anything about those things--but it just didn't look like real documentaries I've watched), and worst of all Christian Johnson took a great idea and made it suck. It reminded me of the time I tried to draw a picture of my dog and ended up with a really bad stick figure looking thing that looked more like a giant turd. I'd rather watch the Blair Witch VIII, than sit through that again.

I thought it was an awesome film. The action scenes are more realistic than anything out of Hollywood. I think people are so inundated with CGI in action flicks that people no longer know what reality is suppose to look like.

This movie is tense, scary, and realistic. Who cares that the dialogue is crap. There is some really interesting things said in the film by real people (bounty hunters, afghans, etc). If people pay attention and stop being so prejudgmental and negative you might enjoy this film for what it is, and isn't.

I must admit, I thought the movie was a real documentary when I first saw it. Even after finding out it was just a mockumentary, I still enjoyed it. I have watched it with friends and most were blown away by this film. Some didn't believe it was real (because it was too real - didn't believe anyone in their right mind would do this) but still appreciated the realism and crazyness of it all.

It puts you on the midpoint of wondering...was that part real?

I thought before starting with these movie that it might be a good one, but when i started with it i found it really awful. They said movie is being made in Afghanistan but i think 95% of the movie is shot in India. you can see Indian made cars. you can see lars drinking bisleri(an Indian water brand), Hindi written on the road, you can also see temples in Afghanistan *hahah* its really funny and many more stuff which proves its not shot in Afghanistan. I think one should not waste his/her time watching this movie.. pure time waste.. i would recommend to do something else instead of watching this movie or may be might heart is better idea but don't watch this waste of time