Still from UNTRACEABLE (2008).
© Sony Home Entertainment
Mania Grade: B-
Rated: R
Cast: Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks
Writer: Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Distributor: Sony Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: Audio Commentary, Four behind-the-scenes featurettes
Buy it now!
Rated: R
Cast: Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks
Writer: Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Distributor: Sony Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: Audio Commentary, Four behind-the-scenes featurettes
Buy it now!
DVD Review: UNTRACEABLE
By: Tim JansonDate: Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Untraceable is a thriller that is heavily influenced, for both good and bad, by the Saw film series. As in Saw, the killer uses ingenious and diabolical traps to kill his victims. The victims actually are given a chance to survive although remote. The twist here is that the killer is broadcasting his murders on the internet over a site called killwithme.com. The more visitors that log onto the site, the faster the person is killed. As an example, one victim is surrounded by dozens of heat lamps. As the site traffic increases, more heat lamps are turned on, eventually baking the unfortunate man alive.
On his trail is FBI agent Jennifer Marsh (Lane), a member of the cyber crimes unit. Her days are normally spent tracking down online predators, scam artists, and identity thieves but this is something she’s never encountered before. This killer may be psychotic but he’s also brilliant. Every attempt to track him down results in a bogus IP address being tossed out. Jennifer is joined in the hunt by Portland, Oregon detective Eric Box (Burke). Both of them can only watch helplessly as the killer flaunts his murders to law enforcement as millions of people visit the site. The cat and mouse game soon turns deadly as the killer sets his sights on the agents who are tracking him down including Jennifer and her family.
Diane Lane was perfect in her role. As an older actress she is still very attractive yet she’s not a starlet type who would not be convincing as an FBI agent. She’s strong but vulnerable. She’s clever but the smartest person in the room. Most of the other performances were ordinary but Lane truly stood out. I was happy the writers did not take the sappy avenue and develop an emotional relationship between Marsh and Detective Box. This is usually an unneeded plot contrivance and thankfully it was avoided in Untraceable.
The film does suffer from one of the same weaknesses of the Saw films in that the killer is too smart and too resourceful. I always wondered how Jigsaw had the money to build all of those elaborate traps and obtain all of those empty buildings so he could kill in seclusion. I’m not a computer expert but I found the killers ability to avoid detection, particularly by the FBI, and then infiltrate the home PC of Marsh, to border on the highly implausible. As smart as the killer was he ended up making the dumb mistake of changing his modus operandi by going after the FBI agents. It simply doesn’t fit with the motives of the other murders.
Untraceable is a good thriller that could have been exceptional with a bit of tinkering. It pushes the notion of how much our society has degraded as the site visitors KNOW they are helping to hasten the person’s death and yet they keep coming back even after repeated warnings. The killer ends up stepping on his own feet and gets caught without any actual effort by the FBI. It’s definitely worth a view for Lane’s strong performance.
Extras
Audio Commentary with Director Gregory Hoblit, Producer Hawk Koch and Production Designer Paul Eads
Four behind-the-scenes featurettes:
“Tracking Untraceable” – The director and writers take viewers through the development of the screenplay.
“Untraceable: The Personnel Files” – looks at the characters portrayed in the film and features interviews with cast members.
“The Blueprint of Murder” – Insights from the production designer, special effects supervisor, and the FBI agent who acted as an advisor.
