Welcome to our weekly entertainment column by YSN member and movie aficionado Rama Tampubolon. He runs the movie review and discussion blog, Rama’s Screen, and was featured in “United 300,” which won for “Best Spoof” at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. He’ll discuss the latest hot topics and movie reviews every Thursday on Waste Time Wisely.
This is a pretty good thriller. I don’t necessarily agree with some of the good reviews that have been given for this film calling it “Silence of The Lambs in Digital age”. I personally think it would have to take more to be compared to something as great as Anthony Hopkins’ thriller. But UNTRACEABLE does involve… a certain level of intelligence in figuring out the crime, not so much psychological intelligence… because though the villain is computer smart, he’s not smart enough to get into people’s heads by having a conversation with them.
FBI agent profiler Jennifer Marsh (Lane) has always been good at capturing criminals working on the web. But when a murderer who loves to post his victims live on the internet that attracts visitors to kill with him, Marsh is caught in a personal cat and mouse game with the serial killer. His ability to become untraceable doesn’t make things any easier for her either.
Diane Lane’s compelling performance as an FBI agent being hunted down by the very evil tech web programmer she’s hunting down is one that can captivate your attention. She is a very talented, brave actress who deserve another shot at a nomination if she could only get the right project to do. And her co-worker in this movie, Colin Hanks is the spitting image of his father, Tom Hanks, although… it may take a few years of sharpening skills and more work to even come close to being as great an actor as his father is. What a pressure, huh? I’m sure he’s gotten a lot of that ever since he chose to be in the business.
This movie’s torture/porn aspect and some hand-held camera work YouTube style that’s been a fad in some of the movies we’ve seen lately.
One interesting fact that is useless at the same time, this is Diane Lane’s third movie that has the word “Un” attached to the title, the other ones are: Unfaithful and Under the Tuscan Sun.
UNTRACEABLE is a good thriller. I think what makes it interesting is how the bad guy manages to evade capture every single time. For a while he successfully turns himself into a cyber ghost. A concept like this, as millions visit the site, the faster the victims bleed, is something unique or different than the usual, it feeds off people’s curiosity and interest in violence even when they’re against or they don’t want to admit it. The concept, which may or may not be feasible, is what holds you on the edge of your seat, thinking “That would suck it this could actually happen, I’m glad it’s only in a movie, let me see how this turns out”
What makes a thriller is the cat and mouse game. And this movie has this element. I would put this almost in the same level as last year’s thriller Fracture. It’s a game of who can outsmart who. And the story does get better when the hero cop is face to face against the villain in the end scene. As brilliant as No Country for Old Men was, I think we can agree that most audiences everywhere still love the feeling of watching the good guy finally captures or kills the bad guy, the audiences still would rather have something to applaud or cheer for at the end.
