THE BONE COLLECTOR R
Starring Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Michael Rooker, Ed O'Neill, and Queen Latifah
(Go to the bottom of the page to see our brief preview based on the trailer.)
Eric says: ******1/2 (6 1/2)
I bought the book. Right after I saw the movie, I walked over to Borders and bought the Jeffrey Deaver book that the Denzel/Angelina thriller is based on. That's good and bad. I was interested enough in the characters to want details that are only found in books. At the same time, I was hoping for a few more details that would make the story more cohesive than what I saw on the big screen.
Denzel is a forensics expert paralyzed very early on and Angelina Jolie is the beat cop who, through a knack for the work, is picked by him to lead the way in the investigation of a serial killer. Now we all know the formula of thrillers. Either a) a character is set up to be suspected throughout and they end up being the guilty party, or b) all characters take turns being suspected only to be un-suspected, then re-suspected again until the end, or c) the bad guy comes absolutely out of nowhere to basically trick the audience, or d) while there is a main suspect, it ends up being one of the characters that we momentarily thought it might have been all along. Bone Collector blends at least two of these unsuccessfully. Yes Michael Rooker - Henry of "Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer (great movie) - is the main suspect. Obviously. Too obviously.
It's a shame that such a shallow storyline is built around these characters because there's true chemistry when Angrlina and Denzel are on screen together. Ed O'Neill is charming as Denzel's immediate superior who provides a hint of comic relief while actually acting. Michael Rooker knows his character perfectly. And Luis Guzman is quickly becoming one of my favorite supporting actors as a crime lab specialist. By the time the weird-ass ending presents itself, though, all the solid acting that preceeded it flies out the window with that peregren falcon(very reminiscent of the crow in The Crow).
An entertaining diversion ripe with gruesome crime scenes, some tension, good acting, and a bunk ending. I'd suggest buying the book. Or you could borrow mine when I'm done.
David says: ********** (7/10)
This was a fun movie, which keeps you guessing as to who the killer is. Unfortunately, it keeps you guessing by not giving very significant information. You don't have a chance of figuring the end. Meanwhile, a relationship that we enter into towards the start of the movie is dropped. I assume there was more that had been cut; but the result was a couple of loose ends. The people, the acting, & the scripting where superb - watching this movie, there no stray thoughts of 'Huh?', at least, not untill the killer is revealed.
This movie takes place in New York City. Now, usually when a film is set in a city, that city is a backdrop, a dead image that is secondary, ternary, quatery to the minor details of what the quintary extra is wearing for her left earing in a shot that never sees that side of the head. Thus, the entire planet, the world of James Bond, is but a merest infintesimalism of the City that we see in Bone Collector. This film took place in a City - a humblage of concrete and stone, discorpreal arboreal biologics surounding silica / silicate / oxides, mulititudes of unseen and forgotten subteraenean conduits of conveyance and conversation and, utility a multitude of construcions that grow and grew and shrink and born and died or waste away in un-usefullness as their primary purpose for existance is modified, changed, or forgotten; as the overgrown village, more than a village, is itself not one worm, but millions of millions of millions of non-corpereal,once corpereal, still-breathing pink and brown and grey and green worms moving not just in space but through time and thought - entwining and entangling and strangling in the majestic tapestry that creates, that overshadows, that ensemble we call a City
Well, I see from all my typos here that I'm kind of to tired to type properly on account of working untill 2:00 am, so I'll go 'way for now.
-our preview
BONE COLLECTOR
Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie co-star as a paralyzed forensics expert and a uniformed police officer who team up to stop a serial killer. Based on a book, Ed O'Neill co-stars. Looks to be pretty formulaic thriller material, but I still want to see it.