The Bone Collector (1999)-"R"

Run Time:118 minutes

2 & 1/2 stars out of 4

The Bone Collector (1999) wasn't really anything special from Hollywood. It failed to be as disturbing or as manipulating as David Fincher's Se7en (1995) and seemed to be trying to feed off of its popularity. The Bone Collector tried to draw the same audience with its promises of grisly horror scenes, but fell short of Se7en's depth and spontaneity. The Bone Collector, by the way, based on the novel by Jeffery Deaver and directed by Phillip Noyce, follows a series of horrific murders through downtown New York City. A paralyzed, yet brilliant cop/forensic scientist, Lincoln Rhyme (DEnzel Washington) picks up on the case with the help of the former beat cop, Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie), and scientist/cop Eddie Ortiz (Luis Guzman) helping to analyze the evidence. The killer is simply shown as a taxi driver who doesn't let his fares return alive, then following the exact bizarre murder rituals of a killer nearly 100 years before his time. There is a race against time for Rhyme and Donaghy for two reasons: one being to save the victim in time from following the killer's clues; two being that Rhyme could suffer from a severe seizure induced by his paralyzed state that could turn him into a human vegetable, unless his live-in aide, Thelma (Queen Latifah) can get to him in time and keep him breathing. The revealing of the killer at the end confused me because I still wasn't sure of the motive for all of the other killings done by the murderer. Despite this, Denzel Washington and Queen Latifah both give solid performances, but Angelina Jolie seemed miscast in her role and out-of-place in her character. Also, I was more interested in seeing what the next clever murder scheme the killer would recreate than if he would be caught. Although I didn't care much about the characters, I still felt involved in the movie, which is why I gave it 2 & 1/2 stars.