Untraceable
Monday, June 16, 2008
“A cyber killer has finally found the perfect accomplice: You.”
We just watched this one today – we were too iffy on seeing it in the theaters when it was first out. I’m glad we watched it at home – because I’m a wuss. I love thrillers, but I’m not good with realistic gore. I’m fine with Dawn of the Dead gore, for some reason, but whacked out torture type gore is not my thing. The movie Se7en, while brilliant, haunted my dreams for YEARS.
Untraceable is about a Portland, OR FBI Agent who works on a cyber-crimes task force, played by Diane Lane. Things get ugly, fast, when they receive a tip about a site that streams video of murders taking place live. The catch is, the more people that sign on to the site during one of these streams, the faster and more painful the victim’s death. So, everyone who visits the site becomes an accomplice. As the cat and mouse situation escalates, things get personal…
Now, as I said, I’m a wuss, so I thought this movie was full of suspense and pretty scary. My hubs didn’t. I asked him what he thought and all he said was, “I’ve seen a lot worse.” Which is why he watches most horror movies without me. lol… We both had a problem with giant holes in Diane Lane’s character’s conduct as an FBI agent. Things that normal human beings would be more careful about, as a supposed FBI agent, she isn’t – which of course is part of the suspense, but it’s also pretty frustrating. An example is not blinking an eye when her daughter tells her ‘a friend’ sent her a game to download [since her character knows better than anyone the security risks of downloading unknown applications - she didn't ask a single question...], or sitting in front of huge windows at night for the entire world to see in after dark. Maybe we’re paranoid, but as they say, criminals look for opportunity. Don’t give them one! DUH! lol…
The other thing that got a little crazy was the complexity of the crimes and the seemingly endless resources the suspect had. In real life he would have hit a serious ‘resource allocation problem’ [that was the answer I got every time I'd ask my counterparts in India for something they didn't want to do, back when I used to build websites for corporate promotional merchandise programs - exciting stuff, I know... but they said it like a broken record on a daily basis, so it's become part of our regular nomenclature].
The story wasn’t all that bad, though – they do manage to give an explanation for everything – and the acting was good. I’m a Diane Lane fan, and she didn’t disappoint. Everything did tie together well and it was interesting enough to keep us watching. I was thoroughly creeped out fairly soon into the movie and totally skeeved by the end and had to watch something funny afterward, before going to bed. lol
So, for a scary ‘what if’ reminder of the power of the internet and of our morbid curiosity as human beings… and a fairly tense ride, I’d say Untraceable is worth a rental if crime thrillers are your thing. 3 out of 5.
~ HELENA
Add’l Info: Released: Jan 25, 2008 • Runtime: 101 minutes • Rated R for grisly violence and torture, and some language
