Taking Lives (2004)
Starring...Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland
Directed by...D.J. Caruso
My Rating:
Ya know, I went into this movie thinking it was gonna be a "Fallen" rip off cause I didn't really pay any attention to the commercials and read a summary that said "FBI agent tries to find guy who keeps hopping from body to body" so I went into this thinking it was going to be a supernatural thriller. After the opening 5 minutes, I quickly realized how wrong I was. "Taking Lives" turned out to be better then one would have thought. It wasn't the best film in the world, but it was better then what one expects and turns out to be worth the cash.
It starts off with this guy named Martin trying to go cross country and he picks up some guy who he ends up, pushing into the middle of the road when a truck comes barrelling down the highway and killing him, he then takes his identity and moves on. It's been 15 years and more and more people have been killed. When a man is killed, hands cut off and face bashed in, it leaves the local police detectives baffled so they call in a specialist. FBI Agent Illeana (Jolie) comes in and quickly takes over the case, must to the dismay of the previous detective. Soon after Martin strikes again and this time a witness named Costa (Hawke) is brought in, but now he is a lose end, and now the killer must find him and finish his work. Can he be stopped in time?
"Taking Lives" at some points seemed to remind me of "Silence of the Lambs" at certain points in the film. It is rather predictable and I did figure out the killer rather quickly, although his motives for doing it were interesting. It does manage to rip one solid scare out of you though and the ending was pretty good as well. Like I said, it wasn't the greatest thriller, but it is rather good and very entertaining. I found myself getting into it.
As for acting, Jolie does a pretty good performance as Illeana, I was hoping for a little more background info on her character but I wasn't that down about what I got. Ethan Hawke as Costa had the whole "Anthony Perkins~Norman Bates" vibe going on for him and it worked wonders. He does a great job and really shines in the movie. Now to Keifer Sutherland and his giant ass part...yeah...he has like 3 lines and a smile and thats it. What a fucking waste. He seems to be getting alot of the bad guy roles in which his voice does everything. The directing really was what made this film different, the director took some chances with his work. We get some very interesting shots and some nifty camera work, although some of it was unneeded and made things kind of hard to watch (extreme close up of chase sequences) it didn't hurt the fact that the guy behind the camera knew what he was doing.
Now to the gore, we get some juicy hunks of flesh in this piece, we get alot of cadavers with faces bashed in, severed limbs, cut off hands, missing eyeballs, scissors through stomach, scissors through chest, and a bullet to the head. We also get to see Jolie's Jollies in a sex scene and oh boy, are they ever jiggly! We also get Ethan Hawke in the buff...but also...JOLIE'S JOLLIES!!!! WEEEEEE!!!!
One of the main problems I had with this movie is how predictable it really is. I was able to pick off the killer real quick and while some people won't be able to, it was a shame that they make it so damn obvious. Other then that and the fact that they don't go deep enough into certain characters, it was a pretty solid flick and should be definetly checked out.
I say, this weekend turned out to be pretty decent with the release of DAWN OF THE DEAD and TAKING LIVES, so which one do you chose to go see? Well, I won't divulge my thoughts of DAWN OF THE DEAD in this review but if I were you, I would definetly check out TAKING LIVES. It may not be the greatest thriller but it is a very good one. It is different and actually becomes quite entertaining, it pulls out one hell of a scare out of the audiance and for that, I got my money's worth.
Special Guest Reviewers:
George Newman
"This is a lesson to all traveling youths of America. Do not tag along with anyone who enjoys the same hair and clothing style of Bill Gates. Only one of two things can come of it...both end up in death, but one consists of a bad night with a Jeffrey Dahmer wanna-be.
Peter Griffin
"God damn it! MOVE OUT OF MY WAY!!!!! Aww crap! LOUSY FRICKIN BUS!!!!! Aww crap! I can't believe this! I am stuck behind this fucking thing!!!! HEY! HAS THE MOVIE STARTED YET!?"
Ernest P. Worrel
"And people call me stupid."