Disabled investigator Lincoln Rime (Denzel Washington) and rookie cop Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie) team up to take down a serial killer prowling New York City.
Every time a nineties thriller pops up on Netflix, I watch it. I need to show some restraint because quality control is out the window.
I miss these kinds of mid-budget thrillers - you get a couple of high-profile actors, some solid filmmakers, and you have the makings of something enjoyable. Part of the enjoyment is definitely a product of the current movie landscape - while I can look to non-Hollywood cinema for thrillers, I do miss the days when Hollywood would churn out a couple potboilers a year.
I was too young to watch most of these movies when they were released, but even now I still associate them with ‘grown-up’ entertainment. Most of the time, that feeling dissipates as soon as I watch them.
The Bone Collector is a prime example of this. I have known it was bad for years - I cannot remember where this label came from, but I knew somehow that this thing was not good.
But absence makes the heart grow fonder - plus I thought it might be trashily entertaining. But The Bone Collector ended up being a stranger beast, in that regard.
There is something missing from this movie.
It has a slick look, the direction is solid and the acting is not terrible. But there is nothing going on underneath.
The skeleton is typical thriller hokum but the hook of this movie is meant to be Lincoln Rime (Denzel Washington), a disabled investigator, and his relationship with his field agent, rookie cop Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie).
It was not until the end of the movie that I realised the filmmakers were trying to establish a potential romance. It is a pity a couple of accounts - the stars do not have that kind of chemistry, and the script does not develop their relationship enough to make that romance feel like a possibility.
The movie also never feels unsafe - I do not mean that we need to see gore, but great thrillers make you feel uncomfortable - this movie always feels like it is on rails.
What is frustrating is that this movie could have been good.
If this movie was better written; if it was based on the relationship rather than the case; if the chemistry between the leads was electric...
This movie is a collection of ‘ifs’. In the end it just kind of lies there. It is not even scary.
I kind of enjoyed it for a while, mostly on the level of nostalgia, but in the end it just felt like a bore. The quest for a fun 90s thriller will continue.
If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour.
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