365 Movies Day #183 "Mindhunters"

This one was surprising in that on the surface it looked like a crappy straight to DVD film, but it actually has some amazing talent, a plot that will keep you engaged and some pretty freaky moments of horror/gore. The film is about an FBI profile training course that is incredibly intensive and unconventional where the trainees are submerged in highly realistic mock scenarios. On one such scenario, everything starts to go wrong as the profilers are being eliminated one by one by the killer.

In hindsight, it's not so surprising I liked it. Finnish director Renny Harlin was also behind the films "Die Hard 2" and "Long Kiss Goodnight", "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" and "Deep Blue Sea" (though he loses some cool points for "12 Rounds" and "Cutthroat Island"). His talent pool on this one was fabulous with Val Kilmer ("KISS, KISS, BANG, BANG", "KILL THE IRISHMAN") as the head of the training program for the criminal profiler team consisting of team lead Christian Slater (one of my favorite smooth guy actors of all time), Johnny Lee Miller ("Dracula 2000", "Hackers", "Trainspotting"), Clifton Collins Jr. (another of my favorites..."SUNSHINE CLEANING", "Boondock Saints: All Saints Day" and a cameo in previously featured "ONE TOUGH BASTARD"), Eion Bailey (Pvt Webster from "Band of Brothers"), Patricia Velasquez ("The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" and Kathryn Morris of TV's "Cold Case". Also, who can forget L.L. Cool J as the mysterious last minute addition to the team.

What impressed me the most about the film besides having a laundry list of some of my favorite actors (Slater, Collins and Miller in particular) was the thought provoking edge of your seat "Saw" like plot. Lots of twists and turns and they definitely don't follow the horror movie rules.

I expected dumb and got some serious entertainment instead. Always a fun time!

MINDHUNTERS ON IMDB