Review: Mindhunters
This might be the final nail in Renny Harlin’s coffin, and it might not even be his fault (okay, Deep Blue Sea was definitely his own fault, and so is Driven). This time, it’s the standard group of people on an island getting killed one by one story that does it. The arrival of the people on the island gives Renny the room for his one shot at the signature Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer style with air shots, and slow-mo group walk. After that, it’s crampy thriller time. Mix in some psychological mumbo jumbo, and you have yourself a big pretentious thriller that has the dialogue not to explore the characters, but to get the story moving. That, of course, is always a mistake, as the result will expose your wrongdoings no matter how hard you try to cover it up. In the end, the character are mostly inconsistent, and you lose interest as the story continues the transform into a big lump of cheese, the one with big holes of air in it. Using timely deadlines sometimes makes you wink your eyes now and then, but cheap tricks can’t save a film. Not satisfied the characters would stand out enough (and sadly, they don’t), they cast a few actors with major accents that border to speech problems. If you have truly nothing else to do, and you can detach your brains for a few hours, this could be for you. If not, this is a movie you wouldn’t be sorry to have missed it.5½.