A waste of your viewing time.

innocuous

You can surely do better in selecting a film to enjoy.

This film manages to be frustrating and illogical without being artistic. The cinematography is, at best, adequate. The acting is minimal, particularly Carrie-Anne Moss, who basically emotes in two scenes and phones in the rest of her performance. (In fact, one of the key scenes in the movie has her yelling to the protagonist from a significant distance instead of just running over to him to help. This is truly symbolic, as she does show up in crucial dramatic scenes, but it seems like she's sending her acting in from way off the set.) The plot itself is absolute frustration. The whole idea of a "Suspect Zero" is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. If I understand it correctly, it is a "new" term or concept for something that is commonly known and accepted in law enforcement. It's like inventing another name for water. The other details of the plot are similarly irrelevant or outright idiotic.

The acting conveys the basic plot, but little else. By the mid-point of the movie, I simply didn't care what was happening or who would die/go nuts. The characters are so plastic that you can't possibly take them seriously.

Finally, there's no imagination and no tense/thrilling/horrifying moments. While shock scenes don't make a movie, they can be very effective in setting the mood and pace. It is telling that this is an R-rated movie, yet it immediately cuts away when acts of real violence are about to be committed. About the most violent act you see, other than a horribly unrealistic rape scene in a front seat, is one character kicking another as he lies on the ground. The kicks are so fake that you want to giggle a little.

Watch this only if you really don't care how you spend your time.

score 2/10

innocuous 18 June 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1106047/