Okay, so I have an affinity for Renny Harlin's Hollywood movies. So sue me, I can't help but enjoy these polished time-wasters. I'm also a sucker for these FBI crime thrillers where someone is not who they seem. On an island compound, designed by the FBI to train profilers, Kilmer places a group of intelligent wannabees there to find a "killer" called the "Puppeteer". It's all supposed to be a simulated game..this changes when murders start to occur. Lots of tricks and traps are pulled by the puppeteer, and the film goes out of it's way to place LL Cool J(charismatic as always)as the chief suspect. Sure, the film will also put out there the main heroine as well, but this is perhaps far-fetched that anyone would believe she's anything more than a decoy by the screenplay to leave open everyone as suspect.
Yes, I was eye-rolling at some of the elaborately staged death traps, but they are built much like SAW in surprising us. You never know what crazy kill will happen next and to whom. And, the always asked question..who is the exceptionally talented assassin? This, like SAW before it, is the ultimate screenwriter movie. I can envision the writer coming up with all kinds of nutty scenarios at his laptop, hammering out which ones work best.
I felt the revealing of the killer and his motivations rubbish. I question the ability of anyone being able to set up and execute such sharply created death tricks. But, the film is a play of cat and mouse with the viewer. I will freely admit to being entertained, nothing more or less than that.
Yes, I was eye-rolling at some of the elaborately staged death traps, but they are built much like SAW in surprising us. You never know what crazy kill will happen next and to whom. And, the always asked question..who is the exceptionally talented assassin? This, like SAW before it, is the ultimate screenwriter movie. I can envision the writer coming up with all kinds of nutty scenarios at his laptop, hammering out which ones work best.
I felt the revealing of the killer and his motivations rubbish. I question the ability of anyone being able to set up and execute such sharply created death tricks. But, the film is a play of cat and mouse with the viewer. I will freely admit to being entertained, nothing more or less than that.