Taking Lives (2004)

People are voting emotionally.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Taking Lives (2004) for it's time was a very well made film, even looking at this film lately I still enjoyed it. Angelina Jolie has always been an amazing actress and to have Ethan Hawke just made it even better. Now in comparative to other films within this time and of course on the same genre and similar story Taking Lives still stood up to the rest. For the most part the story was fairly good, a few wholes in the dialog, and of course a few of the cast there could've been better but all and all the film was a fair one.I've always liked these type of stories in a movie, and of course the thriller based suspense murder films have always got my attention, this is one that I can say I thoroughly enjoyed for what it was.

Taking Lives was screened on TV last night and, since it was late, I recorded it. I'm glad I did.Apart from starring Angelina Jolie, who I have the utmost admiration for, not just as an actress but as an all-round wonderful person, the action was "ordinary" with Keifer Sutherland taking a very minor part.It is difficult to review this movie without including spoilers and to do that would be somewhat pointless because there are so many twists and turns. Maybe the smarter viewers saw them coming but, personally, I had no idea with the result that I was on the edge of my nice comfortable La-z-boy for much of the movie.Whilst I was pretty confident that the guilty one would get his due deserts in the end, almost right up to the last minute, I was fooled (you'll see what I mean). And let me add that I was VERYT pleasantly fooled because, by that point, I was actually seething with anger.I suppose Taking Lives was, in the final analysis, just another whodunnit movie but I enjoyed it and, as I say, I'm glad I recorded it.

I normally don't watch movies like this but after watching it I believe this movie should be considered a classic of the suspense/thriller genre. It is a great thriller with lots of plot twists. If the length scares you, find time for this movie; while it is lengthy, it has a good story line and great actors. Angelina Jolie is her usual "out-there" character: an FBI agent assisting in a case in Canada. Ethan Hawke plays an artist who witnesses a crime committed by the serial killer being investigated. Also among the cast are local French-Canadian police officers. This movie keeps you guessing. The characters are wonderful. Greatly consider watching this movie.

It WAS predictable. I pretty much "knew it" from the beginning. But it's kind of like watching one of those true-life murder docu shows. You know whom the killer is, but it's still interesting enough to see how it plays out. It starts out with a damn good prologue. It's 20 years earlier and the serial killer's first killing is shown as is his modus operandi.All the actors did a decent job with their performances. Jolie's character was cliché as the weird(eccentric) profiler, but she did the best she could with the role. There were a couple of really bad red herrings. I mean did the writers really think the viewers would fall for that? There were plot-holes and some unexplained things that I wanted to know. Such as Asher's(the serial killer) recent run-in with his mother, and the plans he made after that. Is that what egged him on the path he took? And Asher's mother(Gena Rowlands) telling the police how dangerous he was? She last saw him as a teenager. She tells Illeana(Jolie) he was violent, but in her first interview with the police she makes him sound really creepy scary dangerous. I wanted her to elaborate on what exactly happened.The ending goes way out there. Did laws and police conduct go out the window, and what happened was premeditated? I don't have a complete problem with this, but I think some flashbacks at the end or maybe during the closing credits(which would have been artsy too) to show how everything was planned out would have been enlightening. They did do a few brief flashbacks earlier in the story after Illeana(Jolie) realizes the truth, so it's not like it would have been out of place. There's just not enough here that satisfied me for the last seven months that went by in the story. The specific ending itself, you may find it either stupid or puzzling. Or both! I found it puzzling, which in turn made it a bit stupid. If only there were more explanation, then it might have been a really cool ending.All in all, I would say that it was mildly entertaining thriller, but don't expect any surprises. 6/10