Posted by Civello at 68.76.166.191 on March 21, 2004 at 17:48:56:
In Reply to: not a JG movie review posted by Civello on March 21, 2004 at 17:47:24:
: my recent review of Taking Lives
: Take this movie. Away. Please.
: Having to sit through the new thriller Taking Lives made me want to take my own. A convoluted mish-mash, this latest entry in the overcrowded "serial killer on the loose" genre is crippled by countless clichés, a bevy of bad performances, and a script that relies on coincidence far too often.
: Angelina Jolie plays Illeana Scott, an FBI profiler who is so good at her job, you'd think she had psychic abilities. And just why in the world is she in a grave when we first meet her? Nothing is made clear by director D.J. Caruso and screenwriter Jon Bokenkamp -- and Jolie doesn't help matters with reactions that run the gamut from giddy to despondent, none of them convincing.
: Apparently FBI agent Scott never goes to the movies. Otherwise, she would already recognize the roster of stereotypical characters and situations she encounters. Take, for example, one particularly brutal killer who sizes up his victims, kills them, assumes their identities, and then lives their lives until he gets bored and kills again. He has to be a master at make-up and be pretty handy at fashioning oral prosthetics and other appearance-altering gizmos, skills we're simply suppose to assume he was born with and has the means to execute. But why quibble about one stereotype when there are so many? There's the tough cop who resents outsiders. The cop's partner who, of course, gets killed. And the prime suspect who, drumroll please, may just be an innocent bystander. Compounding things are the inane actions undertaken by the characters, as well as action scenes that have no meaningful relationship to the plot.
: Films like Taking Lives, which treat audiences as though they're morons, simply ask to be eviscerated.