Taking Lives

Almarsáre

Hi I was just wondering if anyone has seen this movie yet and if its any good?

I'm debating whether ot not I should go and see it this evening.

The Recliner

I saw it at the weekend cos Kill Bill 2 was sold out.

It isn't a bad thriller, it tries a bit hard and looses the plot a bit near the end.

Worth a watch if there is nothing else you fancy.

It does hold the attention right to the end and any film with Angelina Jolie in it is worth a watch

TCamen

Saw it yesterday. It's close to the worst movie I've seen this year.
If you want an appalingly simple thriller with a ridiculous but wholly unentertaining plot, go see this.
It's painfully obvious what's going on once the initial setup has occurred so the rest of the time is spent laughing at the cast.
Olivier Martinez is cringe-worthy when trying to act convincing as a badass cop.
Angelina Jolie alternates between thrusting her chest out in tight tops or outright flashing her cleavage. As for her acting *ahem*.
Kiefer Sutherland failed to provide a 'threatening' voice in 'Phone Booth', and here he proves conclusively that he can't handle roles that require him to be dangerous or scary.
Ethan Hawke is boring, and the chemistry between him and Angelina is laughable. No wonder all the gossip columnists claimed she was carrying on with Olivier and Kiefer. There's nothing there with Ethan.

The worst part of the movie is when they try and show how Hawke is this chameleon, who kills people then steals their identities, yet his limited acting means there's no discernable change between his 'personas' to even come close to convincing us on that score.

The movie is neither clever, nor well-directed. It's a perfect example of a dumb movie American film-makers think has a 'twist', but it's not a twist if it's signposted long before it happens. There's one good scare that made everyone jump, so it's not utterly devoid of worth, but damn close.
Best thing about this movie was seeing 'The Stepford Wives' remake trailer before it.

2/10

Oh, and if you're wondering, the worst movie I've seen this year so far is 'The Missing'...overlong, self-important tripe.

NightStrike

Didn't think it was that bad

TCamen

Heh, I tend to come down quite hard on poor thriller/horror movies. They're my favourite type of my movie, so I like a certain level of quality...or failing that at least some entertaining moments

I had no expectations for 'Taking Lives', hadn't even seen the trailer, but damn I just thought it sucked. I had hoped that Angie had gotten crappy cop/serial killer thing outta her system after 'The Bone Collector', but sadly not :rolleyes:

Almarsáre

Thanks everyone for the info. Its much appreciated.

I think I'll probably go to something else. I also thought The Missing was the worst movie this year. I actually fell asleep in the cinema. First time that every happened.

Thanks again!

The Recliner

My taste must be up my own arse judging by the posts in this thread.

I thought The Missing was a good movie, even Tommy Lee Jones was half decent.

I absolutly hated that trailer for The Stepford wives, Nicole Kidman irritated the hell out of me with her smugness in it.

Ah well to each their own I suppose.

Almarsáre

Oh no Tommy Lee Jones was the worst thing in it. He was completely mis cast. I didn't buy into the Indian thing at all.

However I have to agree with you about The Stepford Wives trailer. It didn't impress me. As you said, she just came accross as annoying. I read somewhere that she didn't want to do the movie and is only in it due to a contractual agreement ala Edward Norton in The Italian Job remake.

The Recliner

I agree with Tommy Lee Jones being mis-cast but it does make a change from him just being himself on screen.

And while The Missing is not the best movie ever made it was refreshing to see something different from the usual Hollywood actioners that fill our screens(he says even though he has probably seen them all and loved every minute of it. I am a blockbuster whore )

TCamen

The Stepford Wives trailer....I liked it because I didn't really know what movie it was for til Nicole appeared, then it was all a bit 'damn she's annoying'....she really has got a whole smug thing going on since her ascendance into Oscar territory. Despite her general ability to annoy me, I still enjoyed the trailer more than Taking Lives

Re: The Missing, Tommy Lee, he was seriously crap in the movie. More than that, I thought the movie itself was the problem rather than the casting. It went on waaaay too long, the trailer made it look scary & all mysterious, yet what we got were unending scenes with the Indian kidnappers that dispelled any hint of mystery about the whole thing.
As for it being different to big-budget actioners, all I saw was that The Missing had poor action sequences mixed up with boring talking heads and a brat in moccasins. Just a typical bad Hollywood movie that thought it was a deeper experience that it was. Certainly nothing new :rolleyes:

Almarsáre

The Missing was a great idea for a story and the cast, apart from Tommy Lee Jones, were all excellent. The probelm came with the director - Ron Howard. A Beautiful Mind was also filled with the same over indulgence and over sentimentality. And he already has to burn in hell for all eternity as the man who is responsible for Far and Away.

TCamen

I haven't seen A Beautiful Mind, but I don't particularly want to. Ron Howard is very overrated imo.
Ransom was decent enough, but anything else I wouldn't exactly praise.
Far and Away....may he burn in Hell.
The Missing........may he suffer lots in Hell.

Tribesmen7

The missing is crap.

But I liked Taking Lives. Went into the cinema the other night with friends, hoping there was something else good there so I wouldnt have to go and watch Kill Bill V2. We decided to go and see Taking Lives, never seen any thing about it nor even heard of it to be honest before we went in. So I had no expectations, and unlike other films I went to see it didnt have to live up to my expectations. I thought it was a good film to be honest, except for the last 15 minutes....It got a bit ridiculas near the end.

Almarsáre

So I went to see this on Friday night. I had seen everything else.

It wasn't that bad at all and I quite enjoyed up on till the end. Your quite right Tribesmen, it gets very silly.

It was nowhere near as bad as The Missing.