Review of Taking Lives (2004) by Quinto W — 01 Dec 2010

"Taking Lives" is an absolutely hilarious film and not because it tries to be funny but because it's something so ridiculous that tries to take itself so seriously. It stars "Angelina Jolie" and "Ethan Hawke" and I must say theyre both pretty brilliant in it, I mean they take there characaters and this corny story so seriously that it was allmost fun to watch an actor and actress of what you might call a "High Callabor" acting in a movie that seems it was written produced and directed by the people that make Csi,Svu and all those over the top corny cop shows. It's allmost like they were aware that what there were in was probably the worst movie of there carriers but hey why not have some fun with it?

This is one of those movies I thought was ridiculous but didnt completely dispise of and believe it or not I allmost enjoyed it, eventhough I knew how bad it was I mean the characters were suprisngly good but I predicated every little thing in the film that was gonna happen (well allmost everything) but it kinda passed as guilty pleasure type entertainment. Also another thing it looked like the guys that made this were trying to imitate "Se7en" lol what a brilliant idea. So I found it to be a movie so bad but really not something I hated, I mean I usally hate ridiculous films as such but yea whatever.

It actually started off like it would be very good, I mean the opening scene was good and all the noticeable Se7en rip-off dialoge was clear from the very start but it still seemed like they might have even passed this as a good thriller. It had a very dark atmosphere and feel to it and the first shot was a good one. Lol it was actually so predictable that within the first twenty minutes of the film I had allready figured it all out, but I thought that my prediciments couldn't possibly be right because if they were then why would anyone even wanna write a story that predictable? I mean what would have been the point it would have been so easy to figure out so no one would even write something that stupid and guess what? The Storytelling really was that simple.

Well anyway I might aswell tell you what it's about, so yea the films based in the 80's but was made in 2004. An FBI Profiler "Jolie" is summoned to help out Law Enfourcment in Montreal. Her mission is to track down a Serial Killer who takes the identities of his victims and travels across North America. So she is forced to work in a city with a team of cops with which she doesnt seem to fit in. Interesting...

Haha it's one of those films that's so bad that you might even enjoy it for every ridiculous reason you could possibly think of, like it tries to be every other cop thriller ever made, it even tries to be a horror using heaps of stupid loud noises that try to give you frights and it tries to build suspense but fails hilariously. It displays everything you could possibly think of from a bad thriller, but yea I kinda enjoyed watching it for a change I mean my taste of movies has changed alot over the past few years, ive been watching so many great films lately and it was kinda interesting watching a crap thriller that I probably would have thought was amazing 5 years ago. So yea it's not good , I couldn't prossibly reccomend it to all you hardcore movie fans, it's a very stupid thriller that I actually enjoyed because of how great everyone involved must have thought it was and how serious everyone on the film seems to take it, I just thought of it as something that tried to be far from hilarious but really actually was. So yea it's something someone might enjoy for any ridiculous reason you could possibly think of. It's hilarious the whole way through whilst trying to be as serious as CSI, does that not make it entertaining in a way?