Mindhunters (2004)

Directed by Renny Harlin. Starring Kathryn Morris, Jonny Lee Miller, LL Cool J, Clifton Collins Jr., Patricia Velásquez, Eion Bailey, Christian Slater, Will Kemp, Val Kilmer. [R]

A group of FBI trainees being educated in the art of profiling are dropped off on an island as an exercise to investigate a fake crime, but instead discover that a real killer is in their midst, picking them off one by one using elaborate traps targeting their personal flaws. High-concept formula picture is about as ludicrous as it gets, but the “Ten Little Indians” schematic is usually a watchable one no matter the extreme logic lapses of the surrounding scripts. As such, even though not a minute of this movie is believable, and the shallow psychology involved is embarrassing (everyone is blatantly defined by one strength and/or weakness—e.g., tobacco addiction, reckless courage, engineering expertise, etc.—that almost invariably becomes their identity and downfall), this slick potboiler is still capable of holding one’s attention and providing some crass entertainment value of the “bad laughs” and “gruesome kills” varieties. Chances of emerging as a guilty pleasure, however, are undone by a lousy finale that goes on too long and requires unaccountable behavior from the handful of survivors to delay the final reveal; figuring out the “why” of the guilty party is pointless since the motivation is so arbitrary, and figuring out the “who” is elementary. Unrelated to the similarly-named television series overseen by David Fincher. Shot in 2002, and then released in numerous international markets up to a year before the US release in 2005.

46/100