Mindhunters

No Spoilers Ahead

I saw the movie last night in the "sneak preview". I had no idea what kind of movie it was, except for the genre "thriller". Thriller is not right. It is more a "Thriller/Psycho/Horror Movie"

Most of the movie you had no time to get breath. It has a really good atmosphere and good actors. You never know what will happen next and you are really shocked the whole time.

Thats what my experience with that movie was, but i have to say that i did not know anything about the content of the movie, i did not see one trailer of it and i read no comment of it before watching it.

I have to admit, that there are several parts which are not logic or seems to be not logic, but it doesn't destroy the atmosphere, because you have no time to think about it during watching the movie.

I would not watch it a second time, because the shocking effects would not work anymore, but i give this movie 7 points.

By the way: there are really morbid and cruel scene's in it, i hadn't expected that.

I can't understand "illegal alien51"'s comment. I liked it!

( I hope my English is not so bad, because i am not used to write or speak English a lot )

I've read comments pointing out that this movie has ripped a lot of ideas from other movies and that there are situations that are so over the top that they get silly.

To that I say; Sure, why not? It's still entertaining.

I agree that they could have used the cast differently and that some of the plot points are quite unbelievable but on the whole it doesn't distract from the tension and the setting of the movie.

The profilers sometimes act pretty stupid and out of character but the actors do a very decent job portraying them and Renny Harlin has actually done a really good job with the directing.

If you want a horror/thriller/action flick where you keep guessing pretty much to the end and don't mind recognizing bits and pieces from other movies then this is for you.

Well worth a watch (no pun intended).

Mindhunters is one of those movies that's been on my watchlist forever, over the years its just managed to consistently evade me. Now I've seen it however, the wait was worth it.

This thriller starring Johnny Lee Miller, L L Cool J and Val Kilmer tells the story of several FBI agents going on a mock assignment on a secluded island in hopes of pleasing their tutor and getting the desired profiler job of their dreams. However shortly after arriving things suddenly get a tad too real.

I'll be honest even though its been on my watchlist for so long I didn't actually know what it was. For some reason I thought it was a sci-fi with a name like that, whereas it is in fact a fairly smart little thriller.

A blend of SAW (2004) and your standard police drama it's an entertaining little movie that is well written, well constructed and certainly not take your brain out viewing.

Sadly it's not without its flaws but it's still a lot of fun and a demonstration that once upon a time Hollywood did know how to do original old school style movies before they so very badly lost their way.

Fun little movie.

The Good:

Fairly smart

Cast are on point

Old school feel

The Bad:

Feels like its missing something

Film could have done with a higher running time

I found Mindhunters to be a thoroughly entertaining movie that did have some good surprises and moments. The story is as original as it could be, although, one can argue that the whole group in isolation getting picked off one by one thing has been done before. I will not give away too much of the movie so that you can be surprised at the twists that it offers, except I must make one comment. Why on earth do they let LL Cool J have some of the most ridiculously stupid one liners. I mean, if he wants to be bought as a believable actor, he needs to put an end to this madness. I am sure you will know what I am talking about when you see the movie.

Anyway, I give it 8 out of 10 and a definite check it out if you enjoy thrillers... especially ones with gruesome killers.

Director Renny Harlin is very much a paracinematic man, and his particular brand of style fits perfectly in the early 2000s aesthetic of excess. High concept thrillers such as Speed rely on an exponentially thrilling pace. Moving the plot along faster than the viewer brain can comprehend the inherent silliness of the core concept.

Since Fincher's Se7en, thrillers have taken the macabre turn in the crime genre. Reaching the point of Wan's Saw set within one of those trials of torture. Mindhunters similarly attempts the same zenith, upping Se7en's police duo with a ragtag team of FBI agents, racing to solve an ongoing test of intelligence and insanity. Despite the blatant exposition and character development, none of these people seem smarter than Pitt's hardheaded detective.

The agents muster a fun mix of "oh, they've come a long way since" and "oh... who?" Notable entertainers here are Johnny Lee Miller sporting his best Blanche DuBois, Christian Slater and Val Kilmer competing in their natural friendly-yet-suspicious-yet-bored acting styles, and LL Cool J acting as if he was John McClane in yet another preposterous scenario.

Attempting to outdo predecessors with 'bigger is better', the story takes place on an isolated island complete with an entire city simulation for a training exercise. According to their teacher, representative of "the mind of a sociopath", presumably not meaning laughably inane and ridiculously convenient for the killer's grand scheme. The film, of course, never slows down to let you question how the entire plot hinges of this arbitrary setting.

The script of Mindhunters is definitely where entertainment hinges on as Harlin desperately races ahead of logic and common sense. For such a complex and convoluted mystery build, there are a remarkable number of legitimate plant and pay-offs. Many of them are obvious enough to predict despite the suspension of disbelief being thoroughly tested. Much how Jigsaw relies on sheer chance amidst his philosophical soliloquies, a great number of set-pieces and foreshadowing relies on pure coincidence.

The script is constantly testing whether these characters are supposed geniuses outmatched or merely idiots outwitted by another idiot. One particular if insignificant moment of clumsy writing is the repeated mantra of a situation only being secure "on the drive home", the heroes of course proving this right... when boarding a helicopter to safety. Could've easily been fixed for "on the way home" but it doesn't affect the story.

In a world of post-modern, meta-narrative ironies, Harlin is successful in his sheer earnestness for pure, dumb, entertainment. For a film about investigative geniuses battling a criminal mastermind, it's best to leave your brain at the door.