I apologise, we feel bad, but there's no trailer available. ~Ed.
I’m tired of these sadistic horror movies. I just don’t enjoy sitting in a cinema watching people burn to death, get hacked to pieces, or have their eyeballs melted with a blowtorch.
There are, however, many wackjobs who just lap this stuff up. Good for them. Their fascination with violence at a distance is what the writers of this latest slice of vapid torture-porn drew inspiration from when they created this story of online hysteria.
The premise goes that some loony has set up an untraceable website (there’s some techno-jargon explanation about registering the IP address in Russia) which has a webcam that displays a victim being tortured to death. The more ‘hits’ the website gets, the faster the victim dies - a marketing strategy that Flicks.co.nz might pass on for the moment.
The task for FBI agent Jennifer Marsh (a strong-given-the-material Diane Lane) and her team is then to keep the public largely unaware of the site (which they can’t shut down – again, there’s a techno-jargon reason for this) until they’ve located the killer.
Cashing in on a net phenomenon about the curiousity for the macabre (just recently was there a video circulating on Facebook featuring a cyclist being squashed to death by a truck) the film certainly reflects a dark trend. It’s just too bad that the issue is in the hands of yet another self-righteous killer (reminiscent of Saw’s Jigsaw) who wants to teach our immoral society a lesson for reasons that aren’t entirely believable and are certainly hypocritical.
The acting is decent, with Colin Hanks providing a likeable presence as Marsh’s FBI partner. The film is good-looking and there’s some reasonable gore for those so inclined. But the sudden ending leaves us unsatisfied, and the unpleasant and uninspiring Untraceable feels like a wasted opportunity.
By Andrew Hedley, Flicks.co.nz
If you want to see this movie, don't watch the trailer. As with many thriller type movies, too much is given away in the trailer. I think if I hadn't seen the trailer I would have found it a lot more thrilling. In fact even the flicks synopsis is too blatant. The film itself was still quite thrilling for a squeamish scaredy-cat like me, with some really graphic horror scenes coupled with edge-of-your-seat stress. I liked the originality of the main storyline, however I was disappointed that some elements of the story became a little cliché and predictable as the movie progressed. I can't say any more as I don't want to ruin the movie for you with plot details!
Diane Lane does away with glam in Untraceable. She tosses back her unkempt locks and crawls into the darkest, dingiest corners of cyberspace to find a killer who invites surfers to log on and participate. Even in this bedraggled state, she lends a touch of class to an otherwise tacky thriller by Gregory Hoblit. Still, that's not enough to distract from a plot which, despite a hi-tech premise, feels as if it's been patched together using 'auto-fill' screenwriting software.
Embarrassingly for the film's makers, when it came to the crucial denouement, the audience roused from its benumbed stupor only to laugh out loud derisively at the preposterous final act in this tawdry play. Not the desired result for a serious crime thriller, one imagines.
A competent suspenser, helped by the always-dependable Diane Lane, but it suffers by following the modern thriller playbook to the letter.
Highly watchable, anchored sturdily by Lane's convincing performance.
You may view Untraceable, as I do, as a repugnant example of the voyeurism it pretends to condemn.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 15th May 2008.
Release date: May 15th 2008.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
