Taking Lives

Warner Brothers pictures  in association with Village Road presents A Mark Canton Production

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Oliver Martinez, Jean-Hugues Angrade

Directed by: D. J. Caruso

Rating: *****

Plot: An American FBI agent is sent up to Canada to figure out several gruesome murders of several young men. As she tries to deal with local detectives a witness plops into their lap and now they have bait to trap a serial killer, but is everything as it seems? Love, murder and a great movie ensue, as well as Jolie's huge lips.

Acting: Now I am joking with the huge lips thing that is such an easy joke but I had to do it. In all seriousness Angelina Jolie I personally think is one cool person from interviews I've read and I think she does impressive work. That excludes the Tomb Raider movies, those well I just don't know about those movies. Jolie has great acting talents shown in Gia and Girl Interrupted and even Beyond Borders which no one saw but she still was pretty good in that. Anyway she works really well in this movie playing a more down to earth FBI agent. Hollywood has made this such a stereotypical character especially for woman. Jolie is real she doesn't know how to kick ass or know how to shoot down several men all her character does is put together the evidence and catch the ass holes killing people. It's great this movie felt real and alive and Jolie really helped. She was also helped by her surrounding cast made up of real French men like Oliver Martinez from Unfaithful (One hard movie to watch) and SWAT where he played the bad guy. Martinez goes a great job of being a pissed off French cop and actually has some of the better lines in the movie since he makes a lot of jokes and plays off of Jolie's character a whole lot. The other stand out actor is Ethan Hunt who I have not seen a whole lot of lately. He is a great actor but must be a stupid man breaking up with Uma Thurman, yikes buddy what were you thinking. Anyway he plays a witness in a horrible murder and then they believe he is actually the next target. Many scene Hunt actually looked scared as hell so his performance was real and sometimes frighteningly real. This is one movie where the cast alone seriously pushes the movie along and just makes a film you will remember for a long time.

Directing/Writing: There are many serial killer movies out there. Not many that have a realistic tone and that actually can scare the ever living shit out of you. The pacing and the timing in this movie is scary because it will catch you off guard. I can only compare it to Seven which was another great realistic movie. This movie never really has a let down moment your constantly moving along getting scared and loving the characters as you go. That was what I really loved about this film I actually cared for the characters and cheered when they have a victory and felt sad when they didn't. The movie sets you up well with an amazingly well shot first like ten minutes where we see how the serial killer got his start as a young man. I guess that is why the movie studio released the first ten minutes of the movie online for everyone to see hoping it will hook an audience. Believe me the rest of the movie is much better than its opening. This is a suspense thriller that will make you stand up and cheer and shrink in your seat in fear it just effects you in ways other films can't. It is simply one the better films this year.

Overall: This is a scary movie and it is perfect to bring a date to. Except one hot love scene between Jolie and a gentlemen. Just make sure your tell your lady friend you don't care about it or that you didn't even notice it (yeah right)  and you should have a safe ride home. I'll just simplify this for you Hollywood needs to make more movies like Taking Lives it will be good for movie lovers everywhere.