Untraceable

With the internet and cyberspace so common in everyone's life today, plus with the reported upswing of crimes like identity theft and pornography on the net in it's own way "Untraceable" is very relevant and common with today's times. "Untraceable" a crime computer thriller that's set in Portland, Oregon it involves an investigative computer unit of the FBI headed up by a single mother Jennifer Marsh(Diane Lane). Interestlingly the unit comes across a website of a creep who broadcasts live torture and killings of hostage victims in various grisly ways live over the internet. The bloody catch is the more the web surfer logs onto the sick website, the faster and quicker the victims will die in the various forms of bleed outs, fried by hot mirrors, or seasoned by sulfuric acid. The drama only gets more interesting when the computer of Jennifer is hacked into by the sicko setting up for a dramatic finish and showdown encounter. Lane gives a fine performance as a serious investigative agent, and yet no matter how grisly that many scenes are the theme of net crime and hacking overpowers and gives a strong message of awareness even over the well liked and popcorn moments of torture and nasty horror. Overall "Untraceable" is not a bad flick nothing great, yet it's enjoyable and does hold interest by making us aware of the web crime and hacking identity problem.

Writers Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker and Allison Burnett, along with director Gregory Hoblit ("Fracture"), have come up with a humdinger of a premise for their dark thriller "Untraceable." It seems that a techno-savvy serial killer has set up a website where people can go to watch him torture and murder his victims in real time. The kicker is that the degree and speed of the torture are in direct proportion to the number of viewers logged onto the site, thus making the general public morally complicit in the crimes. The always superb Diane Lane really classes up the joint playing a cyber-cop who is not only hot on the trail of the killer, but might actually be one of his intended targets as well.

The idea for "Untraceable" is probably better than the movie itself, yet, despite its weaknesses, this is a reasonably engrossing and gripping thriller, provided one can stomach the sleaziness of the material and the too-clever-by-half "ironic" ending (the movie is at least more believable in its approach than the similarly-themed "The Condemned"). "Untraceable" certainly has some depressing things to say about our natural human propensity for sadism and voyeurism, and it raises the terrifying prospect that we will now be able to use modern technology as a means of satisfying our bloodlust with total impunity. The movie might have had a sharper moral and ethical edge to it had it featured some common-folk characters debating within and amongst themselves whether or not to log onto the site, knowing that, by doing so, they would be contributing to the death of a fellow human being. But because the writers fail to incorporate such scenes into the screenplay, the premise never gets much beyond the "intriguing idea" stage. Still, the concept is compelling enough on its own to keep "Untraceable" a few steps ahead of the psycho-thriller pack.

The movie had a few things going in its favor. For one, it used reasonable technology and background, so the story wasn't far-fetched. Secondly, and most importantly in my eyes, it did NOT go for shock value. It didn't try to use gore to elicit a reaction from the crowd. Not to say that some scenes weren't rough on the eyes, but it was far from a Saw or Hostel. Thirdly, it honestly kept me on the edge of my seat for a good portion of the movie. And lastly, the ending does not drag itself out. It ends at the logical point.

That having been said, this movie will not change your life. It's a little bit of a commentary on society, but moreso, it's just an entertaining movie to watch.

Im sorry but the ratings people have given this film totally don't represent the true value of this film. Okay I bought this film not knowing what it was and for £3 it is one of the best DVD buys i have made. The story line is unique.... displaying the internet to be a dangerous murder weapon. And the acting is pretty good.

The fact the film does not feature an a-list celeb maybe puts the film down a bit in some peoples eyes. I think everyone would be buzzing if the bad guy was someone along the lines of Kevin spacey/John Malkovich. But thats been done before! People have to learn that a good film does not have to have the cast of oceans 11 to make it a great film.

Give it a watch and tell me what you think...definitely deserves a higher rating!

That is the one word I will tell you perfectly sums up and describes my opinions towards this awesome film and it's bogus reception. Untraceable was a suspenseful thriller with great action, fun death strategies, and wonderful acting, that has a ridiculous amount of unappreciative reviews and hate aimed at it in all the areas that a lot of people have no problems with in other movies.

Diane Lane was a great actress in this film. As I have said, the performances are excellent, and she of course gives the best and she made the movie totally believable and enjoyable. While there were of course flaws, I found the story line and the movie itself to be great entertainment. I found myself yelling at the screen and telling the people in the film what to do, and I am not that interested in a film unless it manages to get my adrenaline up, which I find as a positive factor in few cases whilst viewing a movie.

There were things I found predictable, and of course the film gets a little out of hand at times, which as I said, it's not flawless, but it wasn't meant to be, and most of the time I was so interested in the movie that I wasn't making any presumptions or criticizing the faults. This was a wonderful film, that is under appreciated and if you haven't seen it, I recommend you do if you are capable of being lenient on these sorts of films.