Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Excellent, a Must See

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Another movie about a serial killer. Nothing wrong with that to me because i like that kind of stuff. But it's just not as good as some classics in the genre. You almost immediately figure out who the killer is without them telling you and that's a bit of a bummer. There are a couple of twists after they try to mislead you but everyone that watches a lot of serial killer movies will see it coming. Nevertheless Taking Lives is still enjoyable to watch. Angelina Jolie is a beautiful woman and a good actress as well, so what's more to ask. Ethan Hawke plays his role like we are used to. The rest of the cast are also good, nothing to complain about. Taking Lives is certainly a good enough movie to have a nice evening in front of the big screen. Not the best in his genre but it doesn't really matter, it's still good enough to me.

Taking Lives (2004) *** (out of 4)FBI profiler Illeana (Angelina Jolie) is called to Canadia after a string of bodies are found. It turns out that a serial killer has been mutilating men for nearly two decades and a break happens when a young artist named Costa (Ethan Hawke) witnesses one of his acts. Soon Illeana begins to have feelings for Costa even though she's putting him and herself in danger when the killer comes after the witness.TAKING LIVES is a rather interesting film. I say that because it kept me entertained from start to finish but at the same time it was the most unthrilling thriller that I've ever seen. In fact, as I was watching the movie and being entertained by it, I couldn't help but question myself on why I was being entertained. After all, I guessed who the killer was very early on in the picture and usually this means that the rest of the picture is going to drag. It turns out I was right about the killer and I predicted every single twist that the picture threw at me but at the same time I had fun watching it.Why? Because the cast was so great that it was okay to simply turn your brain off or at least not laugh at the stupidity that was surrounding them. For starters, Jolie was simply excellent here and really delivered an extremely strong performance and one where she made you believe that she was this brilliant mind. I believed the toughness that she brought the character and I thought she worked extremely well with Hawke. As for Hawke, he really gets to play a wide range of emotions as this artist who finds his life in danger and he pulled it off. Gena Rowlands, Olivier Martinez, a young Paul Dano and Kiefer Sutherland are all good as well.As I said, I found the identity of the killer to be easy to figure out and in fact none of the twists were all that good. The film offers up some stylish direction and there's no doubt that on a technical level it's impressive. The film desperately wants to be on the level of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and SEVEN but falls well short of that. TAKING LIVES was a very entertaining movie thanks to the cast but there's no question that had the actors not been so great that the movie itself would have been a complete bomb.

An FBI profiler is called in by French Canadian police to catch a serial killer who takes on the identity of each new victim.What a great cast, including a more mainstream role for Gena Rowlands, who steals every scene she is in. We also have a relatively young Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke in one of his stronger roles (far predating his Oscar nomination for "Boyhood").Unfortunately, the film starts strong but then slows down, becomes plodding and predictable. Some have called it just another average thriller, and that is more or less what it is. Neither great nor terrible, but ultimately forgettable.

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