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'Untraceable' Is Torture To Watch

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By CHRISTY LEMIRE, The Associated Press

Published: January 24, 2008

"Untraceable" is one of those deplorably gratuitous movies that wants to have it both ways, but gets nothing right.

It's about a Web site that allows you to watch - live and streaming! - as some poor sap gets killed. The more hits that come in, the faster the victim dies. And the tactic is never quick and easy like a gunshot to the head - it's protracted and complicated. One person gets it while sitting in a tank of battery acid; another is burned to death with hot lights.

And the whole appalling exercise begins with the killing of a fluffy gray kitty - which, if you're an animal person, is enough to make you want to get up and walk out right then and there.

In theory, the thriller from director Gregory Hoblit ("Fracture") is intended as an indictment of society's moral decay - of our primal and voyeuristic urges, of the fact that the boundaries that once defined what's considered shocking have long since been obliterated. But it's actually a shameless celebration of that very phenomenon, not unlike the "Saw" movies and other examples of torture porn.

The presence of Diane Lane as the FBI cybercrimes investigator on the case - who later becomes a potential victim herself, naturally - barely elevates the material. Her innate likability, nuance and grace go utterly to waste. Billy Burke, Colin Hanks and Mary Beth Hurt also are squandered in supporting roles.

Lane's Jennifer Marsh is a widow who lives with her young daughter and her mother (Hurt) in a cozy home in Portland, Ore. All seems happy and well until Jennifer goes to work at night, trolling for sexual predators and identity thieves online. Hanks plays her loyal, self-deprecating sidekick, Griffin, who's always looking for love on the Internet with little luck; as he gets older, he continues to show the same regular-guy affability as his dad, Tom, whom he sounds just like.

Then one night, Jennifer stumbles across the highly disturbing killwithme.com, featuring a counter of the number of hits that corresponds to the speed with which the person you're watching is dying. There's also a handy interactive feature that allows viewers to comment on the proceedings and chat with each other. It's a global village!

One person is killed, then another and another. All of Portland is nervous. But it seems the victims are connected, and it's up to Jennifer to piece it all together. (Burke plays the local police detective assigned to help her.)

Trouble is, the guy behind these twisted slayings (played by the boyish Joseph Cross) is a seemingly omnipotent technological whiz. He can disguise his voice electronically to lure his prey into a trap, or even hack into the OnStar system to make Jennifer's car freak out on a bridge in the pouring rain. And of course it's impossible to track him down through the Web site itself because it's - you guessed it - untraceable.

The movie is never scary or suspenseful, just torture itself to sit through, and a sad example of how low horror flicks are willing to go these days.

MOVIE REVIEW

Untraceable *½

MOVIE BOARD RATING: R (prolonged sequences of violence and torture, profanity)

STARS: Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks, Mary Beth Hurt, Joseph Cross

DIRECTOR: Gregory Hoblit

LOCATION: See movie times, Page 9, for local showtimes.

PLOT SUMMARY: FBI agent hunts a serial killer who posts live video of his victims on the Internet.

RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes

ON THE WEB: sonypictures.

com/movies/untraceable

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