A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Untraceable

Date Viewed: 2/6/08

Details:

Diane Lane

Billy Burke

Colin Hanks

Joseph Cross

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Score: -1/2

The Review: Borderline slasher-torture-horror movie -- a litany of some imaginative ways to kill innocent victims -- masquerading as an FBI procedural. A bit more graphic than, and going in a very different direction from what, one might predict from seeing the trailer; one might almost consider this as false advertising, one might.

Diane Lane is in the Portland (the one in Oregon -- you can tell because it's always raining; on the other hand, that also describes the one in Maine...) FBI sub-bureau with responsibility for cyber-crime. When a bizarre -- untraceable -- website appears with what seems to be a live torture scene, things ramp up a bit. And then things get personal.

Technical gimmicks? Yup, at least two. The first one is a web streaming-video of the killing floor, using some cryptic hacker technology to bounce between offshore servers so the stream cannot be easily interrupted or terminated. This strains credibility, but I'm not a network security consultant, so it may not be totally bogus; it is all too convenient, however. The second one is a viewer-hit voting scheme that grades viewer popularity into the severity and speed of killing. For joy!

I rated this on the negative side in part for false expectations, and in part because I don't think slasher-torture movies constitute entertainment. Personal taste, but there it is. Lane's performance is pretty good, as is Colin Hanks (Tom's son) as one of her office-mate.

(6-Feb-08)

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