Untraceable

Untraceable (2008)

14% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 138 reviews)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: Gregory Hoblit

Starring: Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, Joseph Cross

From: Screen Gems/Lakeshore Entertainment

Here is a movie I saw earlier in the year. I won’t mention the circumstances behind me watching this (as after all I’ve always heard it was not good) but I did and it lived up, or rather down, to its reputation.

This is another thriller revolving around computers and the Internet and set in the Pacific Northwest (meaning: plenty of rainfall). I guess Firewall and this did it because Microsoft is located in the area… I don’t know, it’s just a guess. Here, Lane plays the head of a cybercrimes unit in Portland, Oregon along with Hanks and they investigate a major case that happens to be in their own backyard. A mysterious person is killing people and streaming it on the Internet for people to see, and the more hits he gets, the quicker they die. How he lives up to the movie title is done via mumbo jumbo, not all of which is realistic with current technology. I mean, the scene involving the OnStar in Lane’s car… I don’t think that can actually be done.

But, the downfall of this generic thriller with torture porn elements is that (besides it being boring more often than not) is that it’s hypocritical. It criticizes both people who anonymously do bad things on the ‘net and people who enjoy graphic violence and yet… this movie exploits the story of someone who does bad thing on the ‘net AND the movie yells at you for trying to enjoy this. Why should you enjoy this if it bashes you as an anonymous person on the Internet and rips you for trying to like the violence seen on the screen?

All that plus a really preposterous scene where one victim is able to communicate nonverbally where he’s located at and given the horrific conditions he’s experiencing at the time… this is another flick that I say you skip as hey, there are way too many movies out there (tens of thousands) and many of them are more worthy of seeing than this one.

Look below for another review I posted of another "techno thriller".

I'll be back sometime next week.