Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I’ve heard little to nothing about this film, and it’s no secret that I have little or no love to spare for the Big Dumb Fin. Still, there are Renny Harlin fans out there, and it’s for them that I’m running this one. Take it away, Ethan...
Hey there,
It`s Ethan in the house with the review of the MINDHUNTERS script!
I don`t know which draft is it. But it has Wayne Kramer credited for story and screenwriting with Kevin Brodbin and Kario Salem doing the revisions. Now, these guys truly don`t mean a lot in the quality department. This goes for Brodbin particularly because he is rsponsible for Steven Seagal`s demise since he wrote THE GLIMMER MAN. BTW, to all AICN contributors saying shit about Steven Seagal, there`s only one tip. See MARKED FOR DEATH. Then write a petition to bring Dwight H. Little back into the big league.
This draft I read was also doctored by Dimension`s very own hacker Ehren Kruger. Personaly, I have mixed feelings about Kruger. I loved ARLINGTON ROAD (because of ARLINGTON ROAD, I even watched his early works like NEW WORLD DISORDER and that low-key TV flick, but I believe this doesn`t belong to his body of work) but his other scripts didn`t do it for me. For example, I had high expectations for REINDEER GAMES but all we got was a routine Frankenheimer attempt which proved only one thing, old school directors are still ahead of youngsters when it comes to energetic depictions of action. Nothing else. His rewrites in Wes Craven productions probably brought some sense into otherwise unreadable scripts but SCREAM 3 was a disaster even in Dimension galaxy. If anyone who reads this knows something abot Danny Boyle`s installment in the Miramax alien omnibus, please let me now at my e-mail address. This springs to mind because Ehren Kruger also rewrote IMPOSTOR, the Gary Fleder short which eventually became a full-lenght theatrical release. Originally, it was supposed to be a part of an alien oriented short feature anthology and allegedly, Danny Boyle`s story was even filmed.
Gore Verbinski`s RING probably kicked major ass for people who missed Hideo Nakata`s original but for me it was just a hipper update of a tedious source. Anyway, even if Kruger still has to make a worthy follow-up to brilliant ARLINGTON ROAD, his rewrites are highly valued in Hollywood.
Renny Harlin is one of my favourite directors and after all the bad stuff happening to him on DRIVEN (or good stuff, I actually think that he and Sly made that picture just to travel around the world and band hot models), I pray for him to rebound. I still hope he can make the Sena biopic if someone lets him close to racetrack. If I was him, I`d cast Eduardo Noriega and Monica Bellucci and blame the mob for Sena`s death.
MINDHUNTERS isn`t the best script Renny Harlin directed. Let me remind you, he directed some of the coolest flicks ever like DIE HARD 2, CLIFFHANGER, CUTTHROAT ISLAND, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, DEEP BLUE SEA. Some of these films, like CUTTHROAT ISLAND and DEEP BLUE SEA didn`t rely heavily on the writing. I mean Akiva Goldsman was around when they made DEEP BLUE SEA. Nevertheless, every other film had a great script by a high profile writer. Shane Black`s THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT is one of my all-time favs.
MINDHUNTERS has this mechanical quality of DEEP BLUE SEA script-it melds genre with action oreinted execution. DEEP BLUE SEA cross-bred Monster Movie with DIE HAD. MINDHUNTERS does the same by submission of serial kiler subgenre.
We can define it as serial killer action whodunit. The plot is simple. A group of up-and-coming FBI profilers go on a deserted island where Navy SEALs perform training. Navy SEALs let the FBI use the island for one week every year. So, young profilers do some profiling exercises on the island. They start getting killed one-by-one in obscure ways and realize that there is a killer in their ranks.
Howard Hawks once said that one should never trust a script that reads well. John McTiernan once said that all the best-written scripts eventually go to Spielberg so you wind up doing middle-of-the-road scripts and use them as a loose concept. This one reads well and it is a full-bloded page turner. Some deliberately talky scenes slow it down so that momentum doesn`t swallow the sense of pace.
See, in screenwriting, you must have a sense of rhythm. And the rhythm is the blueprint of accent placement. This script has furiously paced strethes that must be calmed down with extreme prejudice.
These stretches with lots of dialogue tend to get redundant. And that`s the main problem. I hope rewrites managed to solve this matter. Still, the film is already shot. So, if this is the shooting draft, Renny ought to cut some of the lines before assembling this piece.
If there was a rewrite, guess it would be fine if they added some sexual content since the script lacks punch in that department. I know Renny would love to do it. Remember Saffron Burrows undoing for the shark to feast in DEEP BLUE SEA?
Action parts may be stunning and I know that Renny won`t shy away from making them memorable. The script opens with a powerful and suspenseful intro wher FBI agents raid the serial killer`s nest and get involved into some heavy close-counter battle. Also, the reality shootout replicas of towns, which debuted in Ted Post`s MAGNUM FORCE, get ultimate treatment in this one.
The coolest set-piece in the script is when elevator and a hall are flooded and there`s electricity threatening so characters can`t walk through water. To solve the situation, an alpinist character shoots his gun into walls and the side-climbs to the generator in order to shut down the power supply. This beats some of the greatest obstacle-driven suspense scenes and after doing similar stiff in CLIFFHANGER and DEEP BLUE SEA, I think that Harlin could easily make a remarkable event out of this idea.
The climax is energetic even though the revelation of who the killer is feels like a bit of a letdown. It`s not that the twist is badly written. I mean, the twist is revealed in the last four pages of the 93-page script and you really don`t see it coming. It`s just that you don`t particularly care who delivers such prolific murders since you care more about the mechanics of murder itself. The script never makes you guess. I have no idea how can they fix this problem. Harlin directed one of the smoothest character revelations ever in DIE HARD 2. In this one, he has a situation where no one cares who the killer is, so revelation leaves you flatlined. Maybe, the solution could be found in greater integration of murderer`s deeds into the plot. In this script we don`t get to unravel the puzzle of characters deeds that make him a murederer. This means that ideal rewrites should have contained murderer`s actions that look innocent when observed casually but start making sense when fit into a puzzle. By this draft, this kind of magic wasn`t played out.
The murders are grisly and if MPAA lets them pass, we will have gore galore with some CGI dismemberment of famous actors. If you remember Samuel L. Jackson `s character in DEEP BLUE SEA, I`ll tell you one thing-Renny will pull that shit twice in this one. As for CGI, it ain`t threatening CGI. It`s like DEATH BECOMES HER done for thrills.
As for the cast, there are no sparkling personalities in this script, so I guess actors will have to get as magnetic as possible to pull this one off. Val Kilmer and Christian Slater reunite after their latest direct-to-video release HARD CASH. Hollywood was unforgiving when it came to these guys and I hope they get back on track since some of their quality output, like Kilmer`s SALTON SEA almost skipped any release. And there`s also the Brit hope Johnny Lee Miller with a fine character to behold against these two fallen angels. LL Cool J has an impressive track record in my book. I don`t like his acting. Actually, the only thing I like is some of his early music, but he worked with John Badham, John McTiernan and Renny Harlin. You gotta respect that!
I think that Dimension could have a 50 million-grosser in this one, even with the script as it is. If marketed as a mid-budget genre relief in vein of recent Joel Silver or Luc Besson production ventures. It will be a solid film even with this script if Renny stays in shape. The film is wrapped so there are no more rewrites. Let`s hope this one was rewritten. Anyhow, Dimension finally have a competent and competitive product in their hands.
BTW, Menahem Golan is back. Or is it Yoram Globus. Whatever. Let`s pray for Cannon rennaisance!
God bless,
Ethan
Anyone who offers up a prayer for the return of Cannon in all it’s horrific glory is okay by me. Thanks for the review, Ethan, and let’s see if Renny can make the most out of what he had to work with.
"Moriarty" out.
