Mindhunters Movie Review
"Mindhunters" tanked at theaters for whatever reason, perhaps because it was delayed for two years - never a good sign - and promoted the involvement of Val Kilmer, who for some reason is box office poison. Nevertheless, despite the ominous delays and small involvement of Kilmer, "Mindhunters" is a mildly tense and fun little thriller with some cool deaths.
"Mindhunters" places a group of young and good-looking FBI profilers on an abandoned yet high-tech island which also serves as a training facility for intelligence agencies. Unfortunately, also joining them is a ruthless killer who is looking to pick them off one-by-one, and while you'd think their profiling abilities would help them, it actually just makes them more paranoid.
An ensemble thriller in many ways, the film stars Val Kilmer, LL Cool J, Christian Slater, Eion Bailey, Clifton Collins, Jr., Will Kemp, Jonny Lee Miller, Kathryn Morris and Patricia Velasquez, in no specific order. Some "bigger" stars get killed off early and others last quite a while, which in itself makes "Mindhunters" intriguing in that you never know who is going to get it next, or who the villain is. Performances are all around decent, but nothing remarkable.
While the ending does get a bit tedious and unrealistic, the movie overall is quite entertaining and exciting. At the very least, it has some cool and imaginative deaths (one character gets struck with so much liquid nitrogen that his legs shatter). There are several twists and turns, none of which are especially clever but not ridiculous either. Best of all, I didn't guess who the killer was until it was revealed, though it really could have been anyone given some basic clue planting.
"Mindhunters" flopped miserably in theaters, taking in an embarrassing $2 million, but it really is halfway decent and will provide some good entertainment on a rainy Friday night.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.