Dot.Kill

On the surface, "Dot.Kill" doesn't have a lot going for it. First, there's the title, which is ridiculous. So many lame jokes can be made from it. ("www.itsucks.com"), or "Dot.Kill Me Now"... then I realized the movie had different titles like "Digital Reaper" and "Digital Jesus" which make no sense. I was ready for the worst...

Thankfully, "Dot.Kill" is an entertaining mystery. Charlie Daines (Assante) is a morphine-addicted cop on the edge, who doesn't have much time to live. Daines has his own demons, but a serial killer is on the loose, killing people over the internet. Can he stop him in time before his next fix?

The best part of the movie is Assante's performance. He goes over the top and back. At one point he is confronted by one of his partners about his drug addiction. Daines starts going insane. He picks up a hot poker (which comes out of nowhere) and says "Do you want to BURN me!?!??!" The drawbacks to "Dot.Kill" are the similarities to "Fear Dot.Com" and the ending. But if you like Assante's work, you'll have a fun time.

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One movie, different names... Dot.kill, Digital Reaper, Digital Killer here..... pfff seen that before, probably a bad B-movie... Well I was surprised, in a good way. Assante produced this one and I must say, it's not bad at all. I'm not a real fan of Assante, but he does a good job. You can look at it in different ways, finding the bad guy came for me in second place, Assante's struggle was for me more interesting. A movie with 2 stories, if you want to see a good b-movie with a human story to tell watch it. I wasn't bored during the movie and that says something. I've seen better movies but there are a lot worse than this one.

One of those movies that you select at Blockbuster when most of the viewing choices are unappetizing. Armande Assante delivers a strong performance as a police detective, with a bad smoking habit, trying to run down a creative killer. In this moody, urban film all the acting is above average and the story is well paced. The number of characters in the story is substantial but the lead actors (wife, son, buddy, snitch, computer-geek) are easy to follow. The killer selects each of his victims from diverse backgrounds and then proceeds to murder them in unusual - but appalling ways. If you're tired of the animated animals (exception: Ice Age) and/or the non-funny slapstick comedies populating video stores, try Dot.Kill.

I was kind of surprised to find a straight to video police thriller by a mainstream director, John Irvin, and starring a mainstream actor, Armand Assante. What didn't surprise me at all was its weak disjointed story with very little sense guiding the cops' actions in finding the killer.

A couple things were done alright. The locations of the crimes (which are all shown live on the internet, hence the title) are always cool derelict industrial settings. None of them are used to very good effect, but they are good locations. Armand Assante brings a lot to the unfortunately underwritten role of the morphine addict detective. The sad part is that this addiction was a lazy screenwriter's device to take the place of character development, punctuate almost every scene (Assante faithfully coughs away any plot-related dialogue), and generate "suspense" in later scenes. Although, the dimension of his character, as a supposedly obsolete detective matching wits with a high-tech criminal, is still a good idea.

The identity of the killer is not very hard to guess. In fact the central plot of the picture is a bleeding cliché, surrounded by the window dressing of would-be character development, seemingly as a distraction. This was obviously a low budget picture, but it wasn't the budget that holds the movie back from its potential, it's the weak script and the failure on the part of the director, cinematographer, editor, to create a harmoniously atmospheric thriller out of this routine cop-vs-bad-guy movie.

"Dot.Kill" is pretty obviously trying to do some of what "Se7en" did so well and that "Fear dot com" tried to do. However, it just doesn't have the same freshness that "Se7en" had (and really hasn't lost) nor does it have the atmosphere and aesthetic grace. I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm always upset when I see missed potential. Just go watch any David Fincher movie instead.

Dot.Kill is unfortunately not a very original film. It suffers from taking to many ideas from other films from the past 10 years. It is no surprise as this is just one of many films like this that is simply a product of its time. Of course, if you are into this type of thing you might find some enjoyment as Armand Assante gives a solid performance as usual. But even he couldn't carry the film as a whole on his back.

Assante plays a detective named Charlie. Charlie is a sick man who appears to be dying and as a result is heavily addicted to morphine. The story unfolds with a serial killer murdering people through the internet and posting it in real time for millions of people to see. As the case starts to unravel, Charlie becomes sicker and sicker.

Basically, this movie is a cross between Seven and Fear.Com and that's not a good thing. There is nothing supernatural about the movie like Fear.Com but the whole thing with posting the murders online is a similar concept. And the relation to Seven is the direction the movie attempts to take. But let's face it, Seven was a hundred times better then this or any other movie that came out in the genre for the past 15 years.

I will admit that the first 30 minutes of the movie was a bit intriguing as Assante is a fun actor to watch in just about anything he is in, but, the movie loses its muster halfway through and things become predictable and boring. The ending is rather anticlimactic, I might add.

Overall, it wasn't a good movie but it really wasn't a bad movie either. I think the only reason to watch the movie is if you are a Armand Assante fan. 6/10