I just watched Mindhunters. I liked the cinematography in the film, and the acting as well. But I could have used a better writer backing it all up.
A crazy FBI profiler, Jake Harris (Val Kilmer), was pulled out the line of duty for a reason that we never know, he now trains the FBI's brightest and makes them into criminal profilers. As a final exam, the seven aspiring profilers are taken to an isolated island that belongs to the Navy. The island sports a city called Crimetown, USA where Navy does part of its training. Once a year they loan the island to Harris so that he can stage this final exam. The seven profilers are to be left there over the weekend and by Monday they are to report how their imaginary killer works and where he will strike next. Gabe Jensen a police profiler who wants to observe Harris’s training simulation also joins them. On the first morning of the simulation they find a dead cat with a watch in its mouth. The watch is smashed and says 10:00, they think nothing of it, and go hunting for their simulated crime scene. They find it and they begin to check the scene out as trained, when a radio goes off precisely at 10:00, their leader J.D. (Christian Slater) turns off the radio only to have it set off a line of Domino's which eventually knock over a canister of liquid Nitrogen that spurts out in gaseous form and freezes J.D. and kills him as he falls and smashes to bits. (umm yeah right, technically you wouldn't freeze so fast, and shatter--it would basically be annoying cold not dangerous unless you were dipped in the liquid itself.) The profilers now realize the simulation is no longer a simulation and someone is killing them one at a time. In advance of each trap, a watch is given so that they know when they are going to die. Each time it is by a trap that is geared specifically to the individual, which it kills. It seems the killer has been profiling them. The killer is among them, but who is it?
I enjoyed cinematography; they made great use of space in the film. The actors also went to boot camp to learn how to hold a gun, walk into to rooms and all that police type stuff that is usually botched in movies. Too bad they didn't spend that amount of time on the traps, which while elaborate and specifically geared to the person it trapped, were sometimes implausible and you wouldn't really die from that, at least not as fast as in the film.
The acting was well done. Val Kilmer is good as usual as the eccentric genius that is Jake Harris. Christian Slater is good as the personable leader type. Our other profilers include: Bobby (Eion Bailey) he is the fix man of the group. He and the Rafe (Will Kemp) bet against each other on things and are buddies. Rafe is the cool guy, the I can do anything guy. Vince (Clifton Collins Jr) is wheel chair bound. He is the paranoid one of the group. He always wants/needs his gun. He is the take no attitude member of the group. Lucas (Johnny Lee Miller) is the nice southern sounding boy. He is friends with Sara and seems to try and take care of her.
Sara (Kathryn Morris) is the smart female character, she has past issues she can't seem to get over, but she is trying and doing the best she can. She is the one that seems to pull through in the crisis and the movie becomes more and more center on her. Nicole (Patricia Velasquez) is the look at me, girl. She at one point says,
He doesn't like girls. He hasn't looked at me once.
Indicating that she knows she is hot and is used to getting looked at. And LL Cool J rounds off the cast as Gabe the observing policeman. All of the acting is well done. The script is not phony sounding and they all behave as if they were in a real crisis.
It’s a good film and very entertaining if you overlook how the ending seems to sputter out a bit at the end like they had a hard time wrapping it up, and the fact that a couple of the traps aren't as deadly as they appear on the screen. The acting saves this movie where it falls short and makes us believe in the characters and has us buy into the drama. I enjoyed this movie but will probably never watch it again. Its an enjoyable one time watch.