DVD Movie Rating for: Bone Collector

4 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Bone Collector

After an accident in a tunnel, a forensics expert (Denzel Washington) is left as a quadriplegic who is able only to move his head and one finger. Setting his finger to a computer, he is able to manipulate his environment with the help of a loving nurse (Queen Latifah). Even so, fearing seizures that could leave him a vegetable, he plans his "transition" with the help of a hesitational doctor friend. That all changes when he is confronted with clues from a serial killer that obviously are pointed to forensics investigation. The case clearly re-invokes his interest in life. A sharp, young cop's quick thinking saves the first crime scene. Recognizing her talent for forensics, he brings her (Angelina Jolie) unwillingly into forensics detection. Through radio contact, she becomes his eyes and legs on the scene. Michael Rooker also appears as the police captain, who has bungled earlier killings by the serial killer and is more interested in the press than in good police work. Ed O'Neill and Luis Guzman are support staff who aid Washington and run interference with Rooker.

DVD Production Details of: Bone Collector

Starring: Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie

Director: Phillip Noyce

Format: Color, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen, Closed-captioned, Dolby

Studio: Universal Studios

DVD Release Date: August 28, 2001

DVD Features:

Commentary by director Phillip Noyce

Production notes

Theatrical trailer(s)

Spotlight on Location

Universal Showcase

Parental Lock

DVD-ROM Features

Widescreen anamorphic format

DVD Easter Eggs

Cast of the movie: Bone Collector

• Denzel Washington.... Lincoln Rhyme
• Angelina Jolie.... Amelia Donaghy
• Queen Latifah.... Thelma
• Michael Rooker .... Captain Howard Cheney
• Mike McGlone .... Detective Kenny Solomon
• Luis Guzmán .... Eddie Ortiz
• Leland Orser .... Richard Thompson/Marcus Andrews
• John Benjamin Hickey .... Dr. Barry Lehman
• Bobby Cannavale .... Steve
• Ed O'Neill .... Detective Paulie Sellitto
• Richard Zeman .... Lieutenant Carl Hanson
• Olivia Birkelund .... Lindsay Rubin
• Gary Swanson .... Alan Rubin
• James Bulleit .... Train Engineer (as Jim Bulleit)
• Frank Fontaine .... Grandfather

Photo Gallery of the movie: Bone Collector

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Reviews of the movie: Bone Collector

Released in late 1999, The Bone Collector was originally promoted as a thriller in the tradition of The Silence of the Lambs and Seven, suggesting that it would earn a place among those earlier, better films. Nice try, but no cigar. The Bone Collector settles instead for mere competence and the modest rewards of a well-handled formula. With a terrific cast at his service, director Phillip Noyce (Dead Calm, Patriot Games) turns the pulpy indulgence of Jeffery Deaver's novel into a slick potboiler that is grisly fun only if you don't pick it apart.

Noyce expertly builds palpable tension around a series of gruesome murders that lead us into the darkest nooks of New York City. Now a bedridden quadriplegic prone to life-threatening seizures and suicidal depression, forensics detective Lincoln Rhyme (Denzel Washington) gets a new lease on life with a sharp young beat cop (Angelina Jolie) who's a wizard at analyzing crime scenes. She does field work while he deciphers clues from his high-tech Manhattan loft, and as they narrow the search their lives are increasingly endangered. As this formulaic plot grows moldy, Noyce resorts to narrative shortcuts, using perfunctory scenes to manipulate the viewer and taking morbid pleasure in his revelation of the murder scenes. And yet it all works, to a point, and the cast (including Queen Latifah and Luiz Guzmán) is much better than the material. If you're looking for a few good thrills, The Bone Collector is a pretty safe bet.

Immobilized
SPOILERS. They're going to have to run out of themes involving serial murderers pretty soon. The must be a finite amount of synechdoche in the narrative world. Let's see. We've had original stories of serial murderers, in which there was no particular pattern to the killings. More recently we've had killers who committed their crimes in such a way as to form a pentagram on a map, some whose victims resembled their mothers, others who killed people who couldn't answer their riddles, others who imitated not one but half a dozen earlier real serial murderers, a guy who lopped body parts off his victims while trying to fashion a statue of Jesus, ones who killed girls according to their somatotype so they could remove particular portions of skin and make a properly taylored costume out of them, others who challenged the cops with puzzles from Alice in Wonderland. (I think I've missed some.) This one has something to do with the killer repeating his earlier crimes, leading up to his attempted murder of the criminalist he feels was responsible for his earlier conviction, wrapped around abandoned subways, slaughterhouses, old tunnels -- all dating from the turn of the century. This killer leaves deliberate clues at each crime scene to tease the police. His presence is revealed at the end and his connection with the whole business is so tenuous that the bed-ridden Denzel Washingtonhas to remind the audience of who he is.

Poor Denzel Washington. He doesn't always get the best parts, the ones that give him a chance to stretch his instrument, but does he ever get the toothsome costars: Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and here Angelina Jolie. She plays it pretty straight -- for Angelina Jolie. There are no nude scenes and no sex, although she massages Denzel Washington's only operative digit while he's unconscious, and does it most lasciviously. But he doesn't get to DO anything with his costars. He's just a coinvestigator for Sandra Bullock, a convenient friend who sleeps on the living room couch for Julia Roberts, and a paraplegic for Angelina Jolie. Angelina Jolie exudes sex in every movie she makes but she can't seem to help it. Even here, with no simulated intercourse or nudity, where we hardly notice her bosom, and where her grooming is conservative, we are overwhelmed by those protrubent lips and teddy bear eyes, and this despite the fact that in profile, with her flattish nose, she comes close to being compellingly ugly. Angelina Jolie's a reasonably good actress, at least as good as some who have won Academy Awards. That may or may not be saying much, but the fact is that she's believable enough here. And so is the supporting cast. Ed O'Neill turns out to be likably hulky, even when he's not being an egocentric comic goof. And what's his name, Ruiz -- what a terrific face -- sporting a glabella the size of a .45 caliber bullet hole between his eyes. I kind of like him better as a good guy, as he was in movies like "Q and A" and "Traffic." It's too easy to cast him as an immoral roughneck. Rooks, too, as the ever-present clicheed higher authority in the police force, who's only function in the movie is to become outraged and cashier the hero and heroine, is reasonably good, though he's pretty clearly a red herring.

Well. I don't know where they're going to go next with this formula. I'm trying to think but am having trouble coming up with anything that doesn't belong in a booby hatch. Maybe -- I know this is pushing the envelope, but hold on -- maybe a serial killer who knocks off people in a way that somehow is correlated with the number and placement of the word "tap" in Finnegans Wake.