I sincerely enjoyed the movie. And that's with a number of scenes that just flat out scream "I think it's unlikely this would happen". Teenage girls obsessed with pop stars who don't know when their phone is missing. Good Samaritans who approach open vans because the person inside beckons. And a few more I'm already forgetting.
What I won't forget is the fantastic setup. Say what you will about his writing and his movies but M. Night can come up with a hook like no one else in the business. A serial killer, who has been tracked down to a concert that was turned into a trap and now has to escape the concert before the thousands of agents hunting for him figure out who he is, is just brilliant. I absolutely do not regret spending money (albeit discounted) to see this.
The character of the psychopathic serial killer hiding as a regular guy isn't a new character but his characterization here is new. Serial Killers project in two ways in TV and movies. Their either cold, mildly brooding, calculating and stoic like Dexter or Hannibal or they're effusively compulsive and barely controlled like "The Surgeon" in Prodigal Son or Joe Carroll in The Following or Villanelle in Killing Eve. Here the killer strikes in less well worn path like Joe from You did. Cooper aka The Butcher is normally cold and calculating but here he is genuinely caught off guard. He did not see the trap coming and doesn't have a contingency set in place and Josh Hartnett gets to do something other than the Dexter/Joe stare ahead while VO plays. He has to act. Not just act like the father everyone thinks he is but act because The Butcher is frustrated and stymied at every corner. And contrary to what you normally expect from the supporting cast people notice genuinely odd behaviour.
All sorts of people except for.. ya know the people who are looking for him. Cooper is suspiciously not caught on camera with his sneaking in and out. He doesn't do a Dexter/Joe linger stare but he does double and triple takes which no one seems to notice. Except of course for the one scene where he wasn't doing anything weird (Curse you Jody's Mom). In the end I think Cooper is a serial killing protagonist you can root for (like Dexter) without having to feel icky about it (like Joe). And yet by the time the movie was ending I thought to myself: Yeah if they kill him I won't feel anyway about it (unlike Walter White).
Based on the ending. I'll go ahead and say it. It's not definitive like most of M. Night's work. There's a door open for more and we all know what happened the last time that door wasn't closed. It might not have been the most successful Franchise:tm: but I'm sure it made money and studios love money. I wouldn't be surprised to see this turn into the start of another mini franchise surrounding say Dr. Grant . That character is strong enough and interesting enough that I could convince myself maybe I'd watch more of them.
Hartnett has obviously come a long way from his pretty boy Virgin Suicide, 40D 40N season. He's taking a page out of James McAvoy's playlist and he does a great job. Saleka Shyamalan's popstar Lady Raven I didn't expect much out of. Maybe she plays a bigger role in later trailers but I saw the first trailer and stopped watching. Too many trailers ruin the suspense. She was solid here. Doing great work both as a singer popstar and as someone who gets unexpectedly involved in the cat and mouse game. Hayley Mills as Dr. Grant the principal antagonist was played well but due to the perspective of the film not given a lot of material to work with.
There are a loose ends that never got touched in the end. They don't even feel firm enough to be red herrings. Minor spoilers enough to get my point across but not just blabbing the story.
The Animal At one point they note that the Butcher has an animal on his arm . Cooper has a tiny bird on his wrist and a slap bracelet he picked up is used to cover it but it never shows up. They never look at his arm at any point. At one segment Riley mentions getting some temporary tattoos as a goodie bag bonus. She actually says it twice and I thought maybe we were going to cover up the tattoo with some temps which I thought would have been rather clever but nah.
The Trap We're told that the concert was designed to be a trap for The Butcher. It's the premise of the trailer but they also flat out say that a few times in the movie too. At the start of the movie it's hinted the only reason the concert exists is to be part of the trap. Lady Raven was sold out but Cooper just got lucky to get tickets to this "last minute" add-on stop. The problem is at the end of the movie we find out someone suspected Cooper, found his ticket to the concert and then laid it as evidence to be investigated . Supposedly it's this tip off which setup the trap . It can't be that he had the ticket for the concert and the concert only exists as a trap for him . It could make sense that he got the ticket and they revamped it into a trap but the movie strongly suggests this isn't the case even though it would explain things like the last minute nature of the setup.
The Interviews Another major premise of the movie is that they have a handful of profiles of the potential Butcher . They're going one by one taking anyone who matches one of those profiles and interviewing them. But why? The Butcher is an N-th level psychopath and liar. What are they asking these men that Cooper is so afraid (or should be so afraid) of answering? I wish I knew what they were doing if only to give the threat of being caught a little more teeth. It's not like they have a witness or a fingerprint. All the people who were trained about it just say it's a few questions. Maybe if we had gotten something more about Dr. Grant and her skillset maybe I would have gotten some threat from it.
Review by wolfkinBlockedParent2024-08-02T01:44:24Z— updated 2024-08-31T16:49:20Z
I sincerely enjoyed the movie. And that's with a number of scenes that just flat out scream "I think it's unlikely this would happen". Teenage girls obsessed with pop stars who don't know when their phone is missing. Good Samaritans who approach open vans because the person inside beckons. And a few more I'm already forgetting.
What I won't forget is the fantastic setup. Say what you will about his writing and his movies but M. Night can come up with a hook like no one else in the business. A serial killer, who has been tracked down to a concert that was turned into a trap and now has to escape the concert before the thousands of agents hunting for him figure out who he is, is just brilliant. I absolutely do not regret spending money (albeit discounted) to see this.
The character of the psychopathic serial killer hiding as a regular guy isn't a new character but his characterization here is new. Serial Killers project in two ways in TV and movies. Their either cold, mildly brooding, calculating and stoic like Dexter or Hannibal or they're effusively compulsive and barely controlled like "The Surgeon" in Prodigal Son or Joe Carroll in The Following or Villanelle in Killing Eve. Here the killer strikes in less well worn path like Joe from You did. Cooper aka The Butcher is normally cold and calculating but here he is genuinely caught off guard. He did not see the trap coming and doesn't have a contingency set in place and Josh Hartnett gets to do something other than the Dexter/Joe stare ahead while VO plays. He has to act. Not just act like the father everyone thinks he is but act because The Butcher is frustrated and stymied at every corner. And contrary to what you normally expect from the supporting cast people notice genuinely odd behaviour.
All sorts of people except for.. ya know the people who are looking for him. Cooper is suspiciously not caught on camera with his sneaking in and out. He doesn't do a Dexter/Joe linger stare but he does double and triple takes which no one seems to notice. Except of course for the one scene where he wasn't doing anything weird (Curse you Jody's Mom). In the end I think Cooper is a serial killing protagonist you can root for (like Dexter) without having to feel icky about it (like Joe). And yet by the time the movie was ending I thought to myself: Yeah if they kill him I won't feel anyway about it (unlike Walter White).
Based on the ending. I'll go ahead and say it. It's not definitive like most of M. Night's work. There's a door open for more and we all know what happened the last time that door wasn't closed. It might not have been the most successful Franchise:tm: but I'm sure it made money and studios love money. I wouldn't be surprised to see this turn into the start of another mini franchise surrounding say Dr. Grant . That character is strong enough and interesting enough that I could convince myself maybe I'd watch more of them.
Hartnett has obviously come a long way from his pretty boy Virgin Suicide, 40D 40N season. He's taking a page out of James McAvoy's playlist and he does a great job. Saleka Shyamalan's popstar Lady Raven I didn't expect much out of. Maybe she plays a bigger role in later trailers but I saw the first trailer and stopped watching. Too many trailers ruin the suspense. She was solid here. Doing great work both as a singer popstar and as someone who gets unexpectedly involved in the cat and mouse game. Hayley Mills as Dr. Grant the principal antagonist was played well but due to the perspective of the film not given a lot of material to work with.
There are a loose ends that never got touched in the end. They don't even feel firm enough to be red herrings. Minor spoilers enough to get my point across but not just blabbing the story.
The Animal
At one point they note that the Butcher has an animal on his arm . Cooper has a tiny bird on his wrist and a slap bracelet he picked up is used to cover it but it never shows up. They never look at his arm at any point. At one segment Riley mentions getting some temporary tattoos as a goodie bag bonus. She actually says it twice and I thought maybe we were going to cover up the tattoo with some temps which I thought would have been rather clever but nah.
The Trap
We're told that the concert was designed to be a trap for The Butcher. It's the premise of the trailer but they also flat out say that a few times in the movie too. At the start of the movie it's hinted the only reason the concert exists is to be part of the trap. Lady Raven was sold out but Cooper just got lucky to get tickets to this "last minute" add-on stop. The problem is at the end of the movie we find out someone suspected Cooper, found his ticket to the concert and then laid it as evidence to be investigated . Supposedly it's this tip off which setup the trap . It can't be that he had the ticket for the concert and the concert only exists as a trap for him . It could make sense that he got the ticket and they revamped it into a trap but the movie strongly suggests this isn't the case even though it would explain things like the last minute nature of the setup.
The Interviews
Another major premise of the movie is that they have a handful of profiles of the potential Butcher . They're going one by one taking anyone who matches one of those profiles and interviewing them. But why? The Butcher is an N-th level psychopath and liar. What are they asking these men that Cooper is so afraid (or should be so afraid) of answering? I wish I knew what they were doing if only to give the threat of being caught a little more teeth. It's not like they have a witness or a fingerprint. All the people who were trained about it just say it's a few questions. Maybe if we had gotten something more about Dr. Grant and her skillset maybe I would have gotten some threat from it.