Film Review: MINDHUNTERS (2004)

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.

Film Review: TWIXT (2011)

Between The Rainmaker (1997) and Youth Without Youth (2007) director Francis Ford Coppola has mostly stayed to producing films.  Since Youth Without Youth he has been directing a new film every two years including Tetro (2009) and Twixt (2011).  Each new film that he does is Coppola finding new ways to tell different types of stories that are not typical.  Twixt is Coppola’s way of trying to tell an old story in new way. 

Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) is an aging writer of supernatural novels who is on a book store.  He finds his way into a small town that’s a stop on his tour that also happens to be the location of a notorious murder.  Just as Baltimore is leaving town Sheriff Bobby LaGrange (Bruce Dern) comes up to him wanting to know if he would like to collaborate with him on a new novel that involves the town’s latest murder victim.  It seems that the body of an unknown girl has been found with a wooden stake in her chest.  Needing something new to write about Baltimore agrees to the collaboration but soon discovers that the only way to find the “real” story is to go into a deep dreamlike state where he meets odd characters of the town including a goth-like young girl by the name of V (Elle Fanning) and Edgar Allen Poe (Ben Chaplin) who will help him find his new novel that will put him back on the map.

Twixt is Coppola trying to channel his inner David Lynch by way of Twin Peaks but the film is not filled with any interesting characters nor does Kilmer’s Baltimore make for as interesting a main focus as Kyle MacLauchlan’s Special Agent Dale Cooper.  The overuse of CGI in the dream sequences leaves a lot to be desired.  This is a lesser film from the director whose glory days such as The Godfather (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979) seem far in the distant past.