Untraceable: Released Jan 25th, 2008
Runtime: 100 minutes.
Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Mary Beth Hurt, Joseph Cross, Billy Burke, Peter Lewis, Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Director: Gregory Hoblit.
Writers: Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker, Allison Burnett.
Plot outline: In this cyberthriller, a serial killer uses an untraceable website and custom-built contraptions to kill his victims, using the penchant of far too many human beings to watch snuff or snuff-like footage. Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) is the FBI agent who finds the website.
MPAA Rating: R for grisly violence and torture.
Official trailer:

The Good

Diane Lane (Unfaithful, Under the Tuscan Sun, Must Love Dogs) does shine sometimes in this cyberthriller, but it’s not until about the last half-hour - which is the best part, as is to be excpected of any thriller. Untraceable picks up and actually gets edge of the seat exciting. And horrific. Really horrific. So is it thriller or horror? Not sure.

I’m not going to reveal who the killer is but I will say that he was not only cast very well but probably directed well, too. At least in terms of his very creepy facial gestures.

The slow unravelling of the killer’s motivation is part of what eventually drives the movie forwards. But I think they reveal it a bit too soon and it kills the interest level a bit. But in the last 30 minutes or so, the “edge of the seat” stuff begins, with multiple twists and turns.
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Based solely on the trailers, Untraceable is the first movie releasing this month that I’m really looking forward to. It opens this Friday and stars the talented Diane Lane (Hollywoodland, Must Love Dogs, Under the Tuscan Sun, Unfaithful) as FBI agent Jennifer Marsh. A clever serial killer is using the Internet to kill his victims. He has a device hooked up that increases the amount of a lethal injection proportionate to the number of people visiting the site to view the live video. (Yeah, I know. It sounds like a story line potentially rife with all kinds of technical inaccuracies. But it’s Diane Lane for crying out loud. And I’ve had a long-standing interest in FBI-related movies and TV shows.)

Also appearing in Untraceable are Billy Burke, Colin Hanks, Joseph Cross, Mary Beth Hurt and Peter Lewis.

Lane will be in two other movies this year: Jumper, and Nights in Rodanthe. Her 43rd birthday was yesterday.