Customer Reviews

Untraceable Bilingual

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This film was a complete waste of time. Honestly, I could have been knitting.

My friend coaxed me into renting this, and we watched it together. I had seen the previews and I though it was just another thinly-veiled 'Saw'- but she assured me it wasn't. Ha! Wrong. Well, it may not be 'Saw' but believe me, the morbid torture scenes gather the same reaction.

The kitten, okay, I could handle that. The man bleeding to death- I cringed a bit. The man stuck in cement, bubbling and burning to death- I threatened leaving. The straw the broke the camel's back was the corrosive-chemical torture. I stood up, left, and watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.

You could say I'm being unfair, that the movie itself shouldn't be judged by the grotesque torture scenes. Well, I wouldn't know because I couldn't finish the movie... it was pretty boring anyway and they tried to get your attention by making the torture as morbid as possible. It was just an extensive, melodramatic, CSI: New York episode. I wouldn't recommend it even to the people who like violence.

Untraceable seems like the perfect thriller. And it deals with something that not a lot of thrillers have yet dealt with and that's the idea of cyber crimes and a very disturbing cyber-crime at that. Untraceable could have been the perfect set up for a very disturbing, gory thriller with homages to Silence of The Lambs, Saw, and other thrillers. Unfortunately where the idea was great the execution was awful. I think many mistakes were made with this dud and done differently it could have been great. The unfortunate part is that director Gregory Hoblit is not lacking experience. In fact he has directed some fantastic thrillers and should have been able to make this a far more worthwhile cause. Not only that but he has years of experience of TV Cop Drama and yet fails miserably in creating any sort of character arc or real thrill to the story. Its not a complete wash I mean there are moments where you slide forward on the front of your seat as they dangle this murder in front of you and you think "All right, here we go" and then the next scene sends you slouching back into 'this is boring' mode. Its the perfect collection of the wrong elements.

One reason being Miss Diane Lane. She's a pretty good actress and I like her in a couple of films though I never been a major fan of hers and always seen her in mostly supporting roles. In here I find her boring and just with no emotion to her and that's exactly what she brings to the table. She leads the film in a boring manner without ever really getting into the case besides showing a lot of perseverance. Colin Hanks, probably the most talented on board, does show a lot of potential but they never give him enough to work with so he mostly is just there. Billy Burke is the hot detective who shows up to help out the single Lane. Burke barely is a blip on the radar other than being some sort of lame romantic contact for Lane that never really pans out.

Perhaps given a better, more dynamic script this cast could have pulled together and done something but I think they were an unfortunate ingredient because there was no chemistry no spark, except for maybe a slight connection between Hanks and Lane as partners. Now the real key to this film should have been the murders. The idea was the more people that visited a web site where someone was strung up and dying in a different way, the faster they died. This could have opened up a huge door for being diverse and interesting and they do a half decent job and the murders are grisly and disgusting but everything else around it is so tame and boring that you can easily forget about this film.

A very well done thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The story contains many original never seen twists and quite believable with its solid technology and background supporting every fact.

The cast is outstanding starring Diane Lane as a Federal Agent investigating bad guys on the internet, supported by Bill Burke as her rival investigator and Colin Hanks as a co-worker and good friend. Great performance by all!

Although this movie is very entertaining, it's also quite disturbing to see how technology and internet has progressed to such evil.

Un film classé 16 ans et plus et avec raison, à l'instar de bien d'autre film du même genre il est dur de regarder certaines scènes; je dirais même qu'il faut être un sadique pour tout regarder sans brocher ou baisser les yeux... pour ma part j'ai pas tenu et j'en suis pas triste, cela prouve une certaine part d'humanité dans mon être encore... pas comme ces millions de trous du cul qui regardent et participent à ces 4 meurtres et à un 5e qui heureusement n'aura pas réussit comme bon il le voulait malgré qu'il y ait eu un mort... le salaud a passé à la casserole en direct, une mort quant à moi trop douce pour lui mais d'un ironiste à s'en lécher les doigts !

Si ce n'est le très jeune âge du psychopathe et du très peu de temps et de moyen qu'il semble avoir eu pour tout organiser le tout, le film est fort bien réalisé, il vient rapidement nous chercher et on lui en veut rapidement, on voudrait sa mort dès la première demi-heure du film et on suit donc "ses aventures" avec intérêt pas pour le voir à l''uvre mais pour jouir du moment où enfin il tombera de son petit univers centré sur son nombril et qu'il sera enfin démasqué, débusqué, attraper, frapper et enfin mis définitivement hors circuit...

(to the tune of Stay With Me - Diana Ross)
Stay with me
Slay with me
Come on-line and play with me
Maybe you should rearrange your plans

I'll show you a whole new world I've found
Watching victims posed and bound
Now you can hear them screaming here
Where they can't be found

Won't you stay with me
Slay with me
Just sign on and play with me
If you're here you'll see them die today

If you could spend your day with me
Watch my website, `cos it's free
And of all the nights you've surfed gross stuff
Tonight's the night you'll see some snuff

Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):

1. Big Brother is monitoring your website
2. There are millions of sickos in cyberspace
3. The Feds make a good audience
4. Internet surfing can be dangerous to other people's health

Summary:

If you can avoid the obvious plot holes and devices, and aren't too concerned about accuracy or the over-dramatization of the evil that lurks in the hearts of internet users, you'll find this an engrossing (albeit disturbing) movie. Diane Lane is too good an actress for this movie, so of course she carries the bulk of it on her shoulders, but Joseph Cross (Running With Scissors) also holds his own. Colin (son of Tom) Hanks and Mary Beth Hurt also lend strong support.

Not much profanity, and there are "blink-and-it's-gone" suggestions of adult content, but the depictions of extreme cruelty to feline and human victims may upset some viewers, even though it's not gory. Horror fans won't be impressed, but there's more than enough to make your skin crawl.

Amanda Richards