nightwishouge
The Bone Collector isn't bad. It's not boring, insulting, stupid, or cynically made. But it's not good, either. It's competent. It's uninspired. Everything about it rises exactly to the level of mere "adequacy". In the wake of Silence of the Lambs, there was a barrage of cat-and-mouse serial killer movies and techno-thrillers. The Bone Collector does nothing to distinguish itself from the glut.Probably the only thing worth commenting on is the cast. I watched this movie after watching Gia and remembering what a brilliant and promising actress Angelina Jolie was at the dawn of her career. (I still like her. But she hasn't been acting much lately.) She does what she can with the role, believably haunted when she needs to be, intelligent and determined throughout. But there's just not much to the character. The same is true for Denzel Washington, unquestionably a great actor but constrained by an underwritten role. The two leads have good chemistry, but it felt more like mentor-mentee chemistry than romantic chemistry. Still, the movie wants us to think they need to fall in love. Michael Rooker, a solid character actor by anyone's measure, is given an entirely one-note character to play, a detective or something who is higher up on the food chain who blocks Lincoln Rhyme at every turn for no better reason than that every techno-thriller needs one of these guys. He decides he doesn't like Angie because early on in the film she stops a train to preserve a crime scene positioned on the subway tracks. No attempt is ever made by the screenwriters to justify his behavior. Luis Guzman is fun in an unspectacular "quirky tech guy" part.There's nothing in The Bone Collector you haven't seen before, but if you're writing a textbook on the cliches of late-90s filmmaking, a viewing of this one will provide all the material you need.
Prismark10
The Bone Collector is a serial killer thriller in the vein of Seven. Here the gruesome deaths are hinted at rather than shown in a gory visceral manner.Denzel Washington is Lincoln Rhyme, a paraplegic detective now bedridden who needs round the clock care after an accident. Rhyme was a brilliant forensic detective who wrote several books on the subject.Now his superiors want his help as a maniac pretending to be a cab driver, is abducting victims, torturing and killing them yet leaving clues behind for Rhyme to solve. He is assisted by a rookie cop, Amelia (Angelina Jolie) who acts as his physical being as she goes does the leg work and goes out out to the subterranean dark lairs where the victims have been held.As the film progresses it almost seems like a chess game is being played with Rhyme, the clues are aimed at Rhyme somehow as if the killer is taunting Rhyme, like they might have dealt with each other in the past.Director Phillip Noyce uses the film such as Sea of Love as a template for misdirection. It even has Michael Rooker playing a police chief, he played the villain in Sea of Love, initially appearing in a small scene.However the ending was rather cheesy with some campy lines and the motive of the killer felt like a bolt from the blue. Still it is an entertaining thriller but not up to the standards of Seven, Sea of Love or The Silence of the Lambs.
pedrito_rules
Not the greatest acting jobs by Washington and Jolie, but the story was very interesting. If you're a fan of Seven and Taking Lives this on should definitely be on your watch list.
Tweekums
Protagonist Lincoln Rhyme is a former detective and a forensics expert who was left a quadriplegic after an accident. He is not enjoying life and tries to persuade a doctor friend to help him commit suicide
before that can happen he is approached by colleagues wanting help. The film's other protagonist, rookie cop Amelia Donaghy, is the first police officer at a murder scene and impresses Rhyme with the way she processes the scene
so much so that he wants her on the case. The dead man was last seen entering a taxi with his wife and she is still missing. Rhyme, with the help of forensics experts, processes the clues deliberately left by the killer workout where the killer is holding the woman and when he intends to kill her. Donaghy heads to the site with other cops but they are too late to save her. This isn't the end though; clues point to further victims as well as suggesting that the killer is forensically aware and has an interest crimes and locations from the turn of the twentieth century. Before the case can be solved Rhyme and Donaghy will have to decode a lot more clues, deal with incompetent senior officers and face personal danger.This film may contain plenty of clichés but it is still effective. Denzel Washington impresses as Rhyme; apart from the opening flashback scene he spends almost the entire film lying in bed. Angelina Jolie is also good as Donadhy; making us believe in her character even when things get a bit far-fetched. The deaths are a bit gruesome but either take place off screen or the scene ends before things get nasty. The ending is a bit cliché as the killer targets Rhyme and it turns out that everything we've seen is part of his attempt to beat Rhyme as he holds him responsible for things that went wrong in his life. This does at least lead to a fight where an able-bodied is badly injured by quadriplegic man! There are plenty of tense moments throughout the film and the identity of the killer isn't obvious. Overall a solid thriller that fans of the genre should enjoy.
AD
