Taking Lives

Despite my love of Angelina Jolie, I must say that Taking Lives wasted a lot of good opportunity.

Given that they invented an entirely new lead character, we can't really compare this to the book, so let's look at it as a movie of it's own right.

Jolie plays Illeana Scott, a somewhat strange FBI agent who is called up to Canada to investigate the grisly murders of several young men, all whom have had their identities stolen by the killer. New to the scene is witness James Costa, Ethan Hawke, who soon grows to have an attachment to Scott.

At turns formulaic and down right rip off (the credits are far too similar to be called a homage to SE7EN), Taking Lives is a very enjoyable piece of work.

Beautifully shot, the film wallows in its moods. It knows that it can be creepy, but it wears it out on its sleeves.

Angelina is on top form as Scott, although its a shame that the movie does stoop to the need for quick-sex-scene-with-unnecessary-titty-shot.

Ethan Hawke is bearable as Costa, although he and Jolie have very little chemistry.

Other players, Olivier Martinez, Gena Rowlands, Tcheky Karyo and Jean Hughes-Angalade are also quite good.

The film does have its highs: excellent cinematography, creepy sinister mood, two fantastic adrenaline-jump moments that I never saw coming. But it also has one FATAL flaw, and that is that anyone who has seen any piece of film or television before will be able to guess who the killer is. Still, a fun movie nevertheless.

7/10 If you get the chance to see it in the cinema, watch people's reactions to the 'scissors-scene'. I was amazed to see hoe genuinely horrified even the most hardened viewers in my cinema were.

The good news is that "Taking Lives" isn't as bad as the reviews on this board would have you believe; the bad news is that there isn't much about it that's a) unpredictable or b) new. It sports a fine cast of Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Gena Rowlands, Kiefer Sutherland, Tchéky Karyo, Jean-Hugues Anglade and Oliver Martinez. Sutherland and Rowlands, however, are completely wasted.

The film begins in the '60s with a brutal murder and then jumps to the present. An FBI profiler (Jolie) is out to nab a serial killer in Montreal who takes on the identity of his victim. A witness to one of the killings, an art gallery owner (Hawke) is cleared of suspicion. While under special protection by the police, he falls for Jolie. A woman (Gena Rowlands) comes forward, claiming to have seen her dead son, which leads the investigation to the true identity of the killer.

As others have pointed out, it's fairly derivative stuff. The filmmakers would have been better off delving more into Jolie's character - a beautiful, unmarried woman who wears a wedding ring to keep the men away and sits in her bath staring at autopsy photos and also pastes them around her bed so she can study them. Jolie gives us the inability to read the profiler but the script doesn't offer much else.

There are a couple of Swiss-cheese sized holes in this film, but mentioning them would give away the plot. For all of its lack of originality, "Taking Lives" offers some suspenseful moments and some good acting.

Taking Lives is entertaining but predictable from director D.J. Caruso whose admirable in making this thriller but there are flaws that weigh it down. Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke are good as the two leads. Oliver Martinez, Tcheky Karyo, Jean-Hugh Anglade, and Gena Rowlands are effective as the supporting characters but they lack screen time and development because most of the focus is on Jolie. Kiefer Sutherland is solid in a brief extended appearance before being written out of the movie rather quickly. The rest of the cast are okay in their roles but no one stands out. The movie does have a little suspense but it doesn't pay off because the eventual twist I sort of saw coming. There's a little action including a chase that's well executed but the movie could've used more of it. If there was more suspense, action, character development, and a different twist besides the one they went with the film would've have been that bad. Taking Lives starts off decent but after a while it becomes kind of obvious who the killer is and after the reveal there's no more suspense. The pacing was a little slow at times which didn't help either. Lucikly Caruos kept the running time down to 103 minutes so it's not a total waste of time. Overall despite it's flaws Taking Lives is an okay thriller with a little suspense, action, and solid performances by the cast who make this movie worth watching at least once but after it's over you can't help but feel a little disappointed.

This is an acceptable suspense movie full of intrigue , thrills , action , twists and turns . This film is made for Angelina Jolie , she is in each shot. She's beautiful, she plays rightly, she's wonderful .

Howewer , the other main character Ethan Hawke is regularly played , his performance is overdone and warped.

The support cast is featured by French actors : Oliver Martinez who's doing a American curriculum . Furthermore, Tcheky Karyo also has a broad career American ,generally in secondary roles.

Here is also Jean Hughes Anglade who only has French films , but giving a short acting , where he misinterprets a minor role.

Kiefer Sutherland, as always, plays a nasty ,wicked,and evil person. Will he be the killer? .

The picture is professionally directed by D.J. Caruso . He is a good craftsman whose films often have intense car crashes such as Disturbia (2007), and The Eagle eye (2008) and this Taking lives (2004) .

Rating : Acceptable, only for Jolie's fans.

Taking Lives is the story of a serial killer who murders loners and usurps their identities for a time before moving on to the next victim. The story centers around an FBI agent (Angelina Jolie) as she tracks the killer down.

I enjoyed this movie. It has the characteristic gore required for such films, but done in a far different way and in a manner that actually contributes to the plot, not just for the sheer shock value. It has the characteristic plot turns and twists designed to keep you guessing, but for the most part they are well thought out and not just gags from over-clever writers. And it does have a rather solid ending. Too many of these "keep you guessing" thrillers disappoint you in the end, this one doesn't.

Angelina Jolie is very solid in this role, redeeming her in my eyes after her stints in the horrible Lara Croft films. The supporting cast is good as well. Ethan Hawke (who plays a man believed to be the next victim) is less believable in his own role, sometimes he plays the character so obviously exaggerated it loses it's substance. This "obviousness" keeps me from giving it a 10, I can only give it an 8.

I am glad to finally have a film actually set in Canada with Canadian characters and locales, and not simply filmed there to save money.