The Bone Collector

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA)

for strong violent content including grisly images, and for language.

Reviewed by: Gabe Rodriguez
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating:	Very Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:	Mature Teen to Adult
Genre:	Suspense
Length:	1 hr. 58 min.
Year of Release:	1999
USA Release:

Featuring	Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Queen Latifah, Michael Rooker
Director	Phillip Noyce — “Salt” (2010), “Patriot Games” (1992)
Producer
Distributor

“The Bone Collector” is a heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat thriller that not only brings in the suspense at a mile-a-minute pace, but is also one of the most original, cunning thrillers in years.

Denzel Washington stars as Lincoln Rhyme, a heroic detective who is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of an accident four years prior. When a vicious serial killer begins to strike, Rhyme calls upon rookie street cop Amelia Donaghy (played by Angelina Jolie) to work as his eyes and ears (so to speak) to track down this murderer. He sends her down, alone, into the crime scenes with only a cell phone as a link. Entertainment wise, “The Bone Collector” is one of the year’s best.

From a Christian standpoint, there is much more to object to. Violence is grisly, but thankfully we never see anyone actually being murdered. What we do see, though, are about half a dozen scenes with corpses and a few of them are rather gory. Language is moderate for an R-rated thriller, with a dozen or so f-words and a few others. The Lord’s name is abused a couple of times as well. As for sex or nudity, there is none.

The acting and script are excellent and the suspense is all there, so if you can handle some gore and much intensity, “The Bone Collector” is great.

I thought this movie was extremely intriguing. The only predictible parts were parts which the director specifically allowed to be predictable. Other than that, your guess is only a guess. If you can handle some gore, there is not much “bad” in this movie, and it is very exciting! My Ratings: [3/4½]

Shannon, age 19

I didn’t see “The Bone Collector” as a bad movie; not by any means. However, it’s not suspenseful at all and it surely isn’t scary. Call it an original twist on a cop story, but it’s certainly not that which it promises to be: suspenseful and frightening. I walked away from “The Bone Collector” duely disappointed—and wondering if your reviewer even saw the movie! A moviemaking quality of 5?! My Ratings: [3/3]

Brad D. Francis, age 17

I found this movie boring and very predictable. It did have an interesting premise but the story just didn’t do anything for me (perhaps the novel is better?). I always felt that there was just something missing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on that could have made this a truly spectacular film. I also felt that the detectives were just a little too smart to be believable and that things wrapped themselves up way too conviently. As far as scary… not even a little bit. (Now if you want to see a movie in the serial killer genre that will put chills up your spine see the disturbing “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” or of course “Silence of the Lambs.”) I will say this about this movie however and I was very appreciative that they could show deep feeling and affection between the male lead and female lead character without having to throw them naked into bed together. A nice stroke on the hand and a twinkle in the eye was equally effective. Nice touch!

Don Lambirth, age 31

Decent atmosphere, but not much else, not to mention a plot that is completely predictable and derivative of “Se7en” and pretty much every other Hollywood serial killer film out there. Skip it. My Ratings: [1½/2]

Jason Murphy, age 20

I don’t mean to sound harsh, but 5-stars for moviemaking quality? You’ve got to be kidding. This movie was more predictable than knowing tax day’s April 15th. 5-stars? My Ratings: [1/1]

Brian, age 26