This movie got a great credential: Ashley Judd, Andy Garcia & Samuel Jackson. The storyline is what you would expect from Hollywood. Ashley's character is a homicide detective. His father was a detective as well, partnered to Samuel Jackson's character but alas, he committed suicide. Her mum was supposedly killed by her father, according to Samuel's character who is now chief to Ashley's character. Anyhow, despite that Ashley's character is a great detective, she is a fallen angel, who has the propensity to be violent to his suspects & she torments herself by sleeping with men of violent temparement. The movie got excited when all the men she slept with died a violent death. It's the case of a serial killer who attempted to outwit the investigators. Andy played Ashley's character's partner but as any Hollywood movies would have it, the suspicion would lead us to believe that he's the killer. Hollywood has a tendency to think that audience is thick & that the twist is always predictable & somewhat daff. In the end, the explanation given to the deaths of those characters & to tie them to the death of Ashley's character's parents is somehow vague & overly illogical. Anyway, it's just an excuse to get this movie made. Truth to be told, all the actors & actresses in this movie are underutilised. The script could be tighter or better. Give me "Law & Order" anytime. I have just wasted two hours of my valuable time. Forgettable.
not a turkey
My wife and I were lucky enough to see this movie at Mann's Chinese Theater during Oscars weekend while on holiday in LA.
We are both fans of good movies and, quite honestly, this film delivers the goods and sometimes more. It doesn't matter if you can work out the ending in advance, it is an extremely competent piece of film-making. Not an ewigkeitswerk perhaps, but very good all the same
While it doesn't rank with such grim classics as The Silence of the Lambs and Seven, D.J. Caruso's Taking Lives offers similarly heavy atmosphere, beginning well before fizzling into absurdity. Freely adapted from the novel by Michael Pye, and set in Montreal (although it was filmed in Quebec City), the plot trades in several familiar tropes of the serial-killer genre, beginning with the FBI agent (Angelina Jolie) who brings her unique skills (and brooding, low-key demeanor) to the vexing case of a killer who, out of apparent self-loathing, steals the identities of his victims and lives their lives until it's time for the next gruesome murder. Ethan Hawke plays the killer's alleged next victim, and in a film filled with twists that grow increasingly unconvincing,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Angelina Jolie - Ethan Hawke - Kiefer Sutherland Director(s): D.J. Caruso DVD Release Date: Released the 17 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Style trumps substance in Man on Fire, a slick, brooding reunion of Crimson Tide star Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott. The ominous, crime-ridden setting is Mexico City, where a dour, alcoholic warrior with a mysterious Black Ops past (Washington) seeks redemption as the devoted bodyguard of a lovable 9-year-old girl (the precociously gifted Dakota Fanning), then responds with predictable fury when she is kidnapped. Prolific screenwriter Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, L.A. Confidential) sets a solid emotional foundation for Washington's tormented character, and Scott's stylistic excess compensates for a distended plot that's both repellently violent and viscerally absorbing. Among Scott's more distracting techniques is the use of free-roaming,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Tony Scott DVD Release Date: Released the 14 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Johnny Depp gets high off another acting challenge in this tricky adaptation of a Stephen King yarn. Although the mood is too sinister to allow for the mischief of his Pirates of the Caribbean turn, Depp still manages to embroider his role here with plenty of quirky business. He plays a writer, depressed and nearly divorced, who's stuck in an isolated cabin (shades of The Shining) when a stranger (John Turturro) arrives, accusing him of plagiarism. Writer-director David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) does his best to make the rickety material compelling--he gets the maximum out of the cabin set, for instance--but the problems inherent in the King story eventually win out. The climactic scenes are particularly unpleasant, especially in contrast to the cleverness of Depp's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Johnny Depp - John Turturro - Maria Bello Director(s): David Koepp DVD Release Date: Released the 22 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The impressively muscular chest of Tom Jane is the focal point of The Punisher, a movie based on a Marvel Comics superhero. Frank Castle (Jane, Deep Blue Sea) retires from the FBI, which means--as any moviegoer expects--that his family is toast. Howard Saint (John Travolta, Face/Off), a shady Florida businessman whose son was killed in Castle's last mission, orders a hit not only on Castle's wife and child, but also on his parents and a whole bunch of aunts, uncles, cousins, and so forth. The killers shoot Castle himself in the chest, but he inexplicably survives and--as any moviegoer expects--sets out to even the score. Implausibly, given his sometimes curious and roundabout methods, he succeeds. Also featuring Will Patton (Armageddon) as an oily thug, Laura... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Laura Harring - Thomas Jane Director(s): Jonathan Hensleigh DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Critics have universally praised Charlize Theron's performance in Monster, and the praise, for once, is astonishingly deserved. The gorgeous star of The Italian Job and The Cider House Rules vanishes into the character of Aileen Wuornos, a real-life serial killer and prostitute who murdered at least seven men in Florida. Monster traces her relationship with a young woman named Selby (Christina Ricci, The Ice Storm, Buffalo 66), which intertwines with Wuornos's murder spree. This remarkable movie finds compassion for Wuornos but unflinchingly faces her brutal crimes; Theron expresses this woman's horrific life history without softening her terrifying, dead-eyed stare. This is a gripping, devastating performance, a physical and psychological... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlize Theron - Christina Ricci - Bruce Dern Director(s): Patty Jenkins DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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