Customer Reviews

Mindhunters

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This movie is great! It brings to mind elements of films like "Identity" and "And Then There Were None". Throw a group of profilers on an island, add a killer to take them out one by one, and you have a great thriller! I have to admit that I saw the previews and thought that maybe it was all a set up to test them, but after the first death, you know they aren't faking it! If you like last-minute plot twists, you'll love this movie. Fair warning that the deaths are incredibly graphic sometimes so no eating while watching. It was great to see Val Kilmer and Christian Slater back in action, even if they were in small parts (Kilmer has maybe 10 minutes of screen time).

Fantastic!
A group of FBI wouldbe profilers sent to a remote island for a training exercise. Being killed off one by one. sounds a bit familiar? Not in the slightest!!!
This film isnt like anything you would be expecting, every little detail was thought out before production, the cast was to a T!wasnt too sure if LL Cool J would be able to pull off a role like this, as with my fellow Brit Johnny Lee Miller, but they were great. Slater back on form giving a fantastic performance as we all know he is capable of, Kilmer his usuall quirky greatness, and some fantastic performances from the lesser knowns.
Nothing in the movie is straight forward, you are kept on the edge of your seat from beginning to end trying to guess the outcome, keep trying but i dont think you will manage it as its twists keep going till the end!
BEWARE OF THE PUPPET MASTER!!!!!!!!!

Talk about a mind boggling film... this is it. Mindhunters definitely touches the meaning of a true thriller movie. The anticipation you get right from the first second to the last is just great. The plot was very well told with no boring lags in between. Fast paced but not too fast. It really throws you off. If you're one of those people who enjoy thriller movies and having your mind just blown away then this is the film for you. I definitely give it a 5 out of 5. Magnificent job by the actors as well. Absolutely brilliant and a great recommended way to waste time.

If not taken seriously as if you are going to be viewing the next "Silence of the Lambs" with the same sort of buzz surrounding something like "Scream 3", this is easily the most acceptable `Hollywoodized' reality TV show scenario you will likely get - FBI agents specializing in profiling are sent to a military island as a group to engage a mock serial killer at large, obviously goes wrong - thus the plot, with some very neat twists and tricks, does not burn your brain or too many bridges before the all too evident anti-climax. "Mindhunters" can easily just leave the equally interesting but ultimately awful "Identity" to go pound on sand while at the same time just grinning from ear to ear having suckered you into believing `intelligence' might emerge in the screenwriting, this is just one big bag of eventual hot air that at least floats us for some time, you would do well to see "Mindhunter" as it is the next best thing, to the next best things, out on shelf about now, I added it to my collection because I am a fan of Val Kilmer in comeback mode and appreciated the fact that LL COOL J is actually getting recognized as an actor who is not like any other rapper trying to grab silver screen fame time, "Deep Blue See", also directed by quite good Renny Harlin, next to "Any Given Sunday", this could be COOL J's best role to date, Christian Slater gives a good turn also as the leader among them, but it is the story and direction that helps move this one from scene to scene at a rapid pace, the story unfolds quick enough to fill its full running time with many interesting moments, but keep in mind that this is more "Scream" than the original Red Dragon book movie of a similar title "Manhunter", and you will do well remembering that maybe adding the latter to your collection should be mandatory before this item that is pop-corn Saturday entertainment that never takes itself too serious, so why should you? Also the payoff is not as cornflakes box free crackerjack card thin as "Identity" meaning that counting on this to please at least a few brains in the room is not as big a problem as that flimsy offering. Solid 4 stars. You will enjoy it - but not be performing back flips across the room because of it.

*As a note, the movie was made in 2003 with a release date for 2004 but had been shifted to 2005 because of distribution hell (the production company went bust and so the film stayed in a vault and changed many hands). It ran early in 2005 as a DVD Region 2 Disc in Europe after several test screenings to make sure the film was still viable.

MINDHUNTERS helmed by action director Renny Harlin is a surprisingly chilling and effective TEN LITTLE INDIANS-style whodunit set on a deserted island in North Carolina, although actually filmed in Finland. A group of FBI profilers are left on this island to do a training exercise involving a staged serial killer named the Puppeteer. It isn't long though before the profilers are being mysteriously killed off by someone on the island. Is it one of them? Some ingenious methods of murder are used and the audience is never really sure who might be doing it. Atmospheric and creepy with a strong cast including LL Cool J as a suspicious detective; Jonny Lee Miller as the heroic Lucas; Kathryn Morris as Sara; Patricia Valesquez as the Latin profiler; and good cameos from Christian Slater and Val Kilmer. The movie got delayed in the Miramax/Disney divorce proceedings, and it's a shame, because it's quite a clever entry in the mystery/serial killer genre.

With all the garbage out in theatres this past year, how did this film go totally un-noticed ?

I saw/heard nothing about it till we saw it at Blockbuster for rent.

It was VERY similiar to Stallone's EYE SEE YOU, but still entertaining to watch in it's own right

This is an excellent film; however, do not expect to see the two main characters in the film long. The films more famous actors Val Kilmer (Jake Harris) and Christian Slater (J.D. Reston) are only present in the film approximately fifteen minutes. As a matter of fact, J.D. Reston character's departure is so abrupt it's almost unbelievable.

The premise of the film involves a class of seven top FBI agents all vying for FBI "Profiler" positions, and a government investigator researching the "Profiler" training regiment. The final exam is set on some disserted Navy Seal training island in the middle of no where. While on the island, the agents are to investigate a crime scene, and work up the murder's profile before the weekend's end.

However, a real murderer is on the island. The agents become the prey in an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse. As time continues to slip away, the agents are forced to solve complicated puzzles in an attempt to foil the killer's next planned assassination. Whose the killer and who will survive this diabolical scheme is anyone's guess.

This is by far my favorite genre of film. The plot sequences are new and inventive; the highly sophisticated nuances just heighten the enjoyment of the film. The entertainment factor is off the scale, I highly recommend this film.

My suggestion: Worth the Full Price of Admission; however, it will be availble on DVD shortly...


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I thought this movie was cool. However, it was rather predictable. A group of FBI people go to an island, and guess what? Sombody or something kills them one by one. The first two tricks were cool, but I think the third or the fourth trap gives up too much info on the outcome. LL cool J was awsome. I think this was one of his best performances. Over all, out of scale of 1 to 10, I give it 8.5 for somewhat great plot and great performance.

I usually don't write DVD reviews, just because movies are such a personal preference. Somebody's one star is someone else's four star, and no review will change that. Still, I just watched this movie for the first time, and I found it to be so incredibly contrived, formulaic, and overly complex that I just couldn't shake the idea that I was watching an exercise on film. The traps are so complex and delicate, that if someone sneezed at the wrong time they would fail. And yet they all work exactly as planned, at the exact time, and kill the right person. I guess the idea is that because the killer is so intelligent, all of these plans, which must have taken years of preparation, work. By the end I didn't care at all who was doing it, or why, because I didn't buy it for even a second. I also didn't feel I knew any of the characters well enough to do more than shrug when they were killed.

I'm a sucker for a good two-star thriller, but this one just didn't work for me. If you choose to buy it, I hope it turns out to be a four-star for you. It was a one star for me.

The general plot holds promise but when the intricacies of the plot begin to unfold, it's just gets dumb. I see how some people can THINK this is a better movie than it is because they either choose to ignore physics violations or don't have enough knowledge to know when they exist. Potential spoilers ahead!!! Canisters of high pressure gas do not remain stationary when they fall over and the cap comes off - Equal and opposite reaction. Severed heads do not fall backward when someone is sitting with their head down and they get pulled up from the shoulder - Gravity - And, of course this was no trap but a contrivance just to shock the audience and in my opinion violated the premise of the movie. From thirty feet away, someone can tell that someone died from smoking acid-laced cigarettes - Give me a break.

This movie tries and apparently, based on some reviews, successfully, to con the audience into thinking these so-called inventive ways of killing people are plausible but I think they are ridiculous at best. In the non-clever attempted electrocution scene, if the power had NOT been turned off, how could the next trap of turning off the water have occurred. This movie could be picked apart ad infinitum but those that don't require suspension of disbelief can enjoy it immensely. In the very first scene there were blanks that shattered glasses, plates or whatever and agents falling down "dead" as if they would know when to do that as if it was real, but it was obvious that the desire was to fool the audience instead maintaining plausibility.

The acting which was decent, to a certain extent, kept the movie from stalling entirely although I felt that Val Kilmer and Christian Slater were sorely under used. In spite of all of the above, it was watchable the first time around but the implausibility will get in the way if you try and watch it again.