Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

UNTRACEABLE


UNTRACEABLE (2008). Director: Gregory Hoblit.

Interesting premise: Agent Marsh (Diane Lane) and Detective Eric Box (Billy Burke) team up to track down a killer who's behind a very sinister web site: killwithme.com. This unknown person captures people and puts them in death traps: the more people who check out the web site the faster the victim dies. One of Marsh's colleagues winds up in a tub of carbolic acid in the film's most "memorable" sequence. Unfortunately Untraceable simply isn't special enough to overcome that sense that you've seen it all before, reminding one of an episode of Criminal Minds and obviously influenced by the Saw movies. The performances aren't bad although star Lane isn't very distinctive. The killer's motive is intriguing, as are certain aspects of the script, but the movie just doesn't sock it home with any great aplomb.

Verdict: Acceptable horror-crime-thriller. **1/2.

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