Untraceable - Review

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Length: 100 min

Rated: R

Distributor: Sony Pictures

Release Date: 2008-01-25

Starring: Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks, Joseph Cross, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Lewis

Directed by Gregory Hoblit

Produced by Andy Cohen, Hawk Koch, Gary Lucchesi, Steven Pearl, Tom Rosenberg, Richard Wright

Written by Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker, Allison Burnett

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Ed Perkis : 2008-01-27 22:06:28

If you knew a brilliant serial killer had somehow caused the power to go out in your car and on your cell phone on the middle of a deserted bridge on a rainy night, what would you do? What you probably would not do is get back in the car when the power is mysteriously restored without at least checking the back seat. This, of course, is exactly what FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) does in the equal parts inane and disgusting thriller, Untraceable.

Jennifer works in the cyber crimes unit of the Portland FBI field office and lives in a nice suburb with her mother (Mary Beth Hurt) and eight-year-old daughter (Perla Haney-Jardine.) Working with her desk mate Griffin (Colin Hanks), she tracks down sexual deviants and identity thieves online. The first fifteen minutes of the film contains a mouthful of technical jargon to establish that Jennifer knows all about bot nets and backdoor Trojans.

What she doesn’t seem to know about is how to catch a killer who broadcasts his murders on the Internet. Because no one can just pull out a gun and shoot someone, this killer’s twist is to have the number of people viewing the site relate directly to how fast his victims are gruesomely murdered. The more “hits” he gets at helpmekill.com, the faster his victim bites the dust. The movie doesn’t trust the audience to understand the implications of this, so all of the major characters have to explain it out loud at various points during the movie. Even the killer has to say to one suffering victim something along the lines of “if nobody was watching, you’d be unharmed right now.” No kidding, buddy, we got it the first ten times someone spelled it out for us.

Jennifer teams up with city cop and hunky guy, Detective Box (Billy Burke), to try to find the killer and stop him. This, of course, leads the super intelligent, highly resourceful murderer with unlimited resources to target Jennifer and her vulnerable family. Everything zips along with ominous music, wild coincidences, stupid decision making like the getting back in the car thing, and suspended disbelief to the conclusion you’ve seen in every other movie like this that has ever been made.

If this were just a pretty derivative thriller with no real point to make, it probably wouldn’t be so bad. Director Gregory Hoblit is professional and slick and everything looks good. Lane, Hanks, and Burke give decent performances considering some of the idiotic plot contrivances they are asked to wade through. Unfortunately, the message the movie is trying to make, that we love to see the suffering of others and put our own anonymous voyeurism ahead of the life of a stranger, is undercut by the hypocrisy of the movie itself.

The serial killer’s murder scenes are elaborate and gruesome processes that Hoblit shoots with a maximum of blood and gore. There really isn’t any difference between some of these scenes and the torture porn of Captivity or other movies of that ilk. The movie wants to chastise society for watching this type of stuff, yet forces the audience to watch the very same stuff to get the lesson.

If the filmmakers had substituted some genuine tension for the flesh crawling violence and torture, this cast may have been able to put out an above-average thriller. Instead, it feels like a minister preaching against rock music while Led Zeppelin plays from the speakers of the sanctuary. You can’t have it both ways.

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Nora
July 27, 2008 at 17:44

Wow, well this movie is not as bad Saw 4...I have seen all the Saws 1-4 and this isn't as near as bad as those were. If you don't like horror movies and gore DON'T WATCH THEM! OR, you could read the rating *sigh*

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Adjy
July 6, 2008 at 13:18

This movie was nothing bad compared to Saw 1, 2, 3, and 4... really, the movie wasn't bad; and I totally dont think they 'over-showed' parts. It's a movie, dont criticize it for that. If you want to go talk shit about a movie, find a forums for the movie Glitter with Mariah Carrey and talk shit there.

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Franky
May 5, 2008 at 15:22

Haha C'mon seriously this movie is nothing as violent compared to other movies.... like what?? WELLLL Saw1,2,3,4 Hostel 1 and 2 . GEEZ *GOSH* wa wa wa have a cry. perhaps u should have checked the freaking movie rating before you walked in to watch it.

...ok im over my little rage episode

Yeah i absolutely agree that there was sum stupid things that the movie had like bad violence and stupid things the characters did in the movie like the thing with the car on the bridge scene.

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Debbi
February 11, 2008 at 02:55

I watched this movie today,the way they showed every little detail of he torture was awful. I cried during one of the deaths. The others, I sat with my eyes and ears closed so tight, it gave me a headache. I like a good thriller just as much as the next person, but that was terrible. I will not watch it again, as I am one who cannot stand torture. I think the movie was good, but they showed way too much. I would tell you to never let your children watch this film, and if by some chance some wacko out there thinks this would be fun to try, then you should just get a rope and hang yourself now. What I would say to you is, "There is therapy for people like you."

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dallas
February 10, 2008 at 01:03

what kind of sick and twisted writer sat behind a desk and came up with this stupid script... I mean my god these people go to college to get an education to write this crap... sickest damn show I have ever seen... got my money back complained to the manager and they stopped showing it at that particular theater... shame on sony pictures for producing and distributing this film... I wouldn't be suprise if some sick and twisted individual actually thought this might be cool and decide to try doing this for real.... there are a lot of sick people in this world... but we don't have to promote it by showing crap like this on film... and shame on the actors for actually taking part in this film.. must have been desparate for some money... seems to always come down to the almighty buck

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Untraceable - Review

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