Director Renny Harlin is a capable director. He directed the superb Cliffhanger (1993) and Die
Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) and The
Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). Unfortunately, he also directed the infamous Cutthroat Island (1995) and Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) and 12 Rounds (2009) so no one is
perfect. This latter category is where
his film Mindhunters (2004) fits.
Jake Harris (Val Kilmer) has a new training program for his
FBI profiling agents in which they are taken to a remote location in order to
solve a mystery using all their knowledge as a team to work together for a
common goal. Only this time someone has
taken his game and made it all to fatally real as one by one they are knocked
off until they are able to discover who is really trying to kill them all and
why.
The film has a very impressive cast with Christian Slater as
the leader of the FBI profilers followed by Jonny Lee Miller, Clifton Collins,
Jr., Will Kemp, Kathryn Morris, and Patricia Velasquez. LL Cool J also stars as a cop there to
evaluate the Harris’ program. The
production values are also very good and Harlin does a great job staging the
action sequences.
The problem with the film is that none of the characters are
interesting and they all kind of come off as cowards. In a film such as this, which is a mystery,
the goal should be to discover who is behind this but there is an illogical
blame game that goes on throughout the entire film where each character blames
the other. This gets old really quick
especially since none of the characters are likable or interesting to begin
with. Two-thirds of the way through the
film I was wondering when it would all just end as I was bored out of my
mind. Usually, I depend upon Harlin to
at least make his films entertaining (I mean even 12 Rounds had its moments) but this film just dragged on forever
and wanted to be smarter than it actually was.
The film is written by Kevin Brodbin and Wayne Kramer (who
also provided the story) and it’s a high concept film that just falls apart
under the improbability of it all. It’s
a ludicrous concept film that while it may look good dies a quick death.
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