Hollywood’s latest Exorcist clone, featuring Anthony Hopkins in the elderly priest role, supposedly replacing Max von Sydow’s role from the original, albeit poorly. Unfortunately not even Hopkins can save this one. It starts off promising but quickly descends into cliché and a blatantly pathetic attempt to capitalize on whatever relevance Christianity still thinks it has. The rite is one of those films that I knew I wanted to see based on the subject matter and actor alone, but everything else around it, including plot and acting seems sub-par (even Hopkins seems like he’s just delivering his lines with the enthusiasm of someone who’s only doing it for the money – which he is, he pretty much stopped giving a shit around the time he starred alongside Chris Rock in that buddy cop movie ‘Bad Company’). The only “good” part in it is Ciarán Hinds, but that’s only because he was so great in Rome. If I really wanted some Exorcist clones I’d go with something like The Exorcism of Emily Rose and anything with Gabriel Byrne or Paul Bettany in it. And for god’s sake you make a vatican movie with no conspiracy? Have you learnt nothing?