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Taking Lives
Metascore
38 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 35 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 35
  3. Negative: 13 out of 35
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  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    80
    A somber, absorbing thriller that treads familiar psycho serial killer terrain with style. Elegantly made and comparatively restrained in cramming sick and grisly stuff down the audience's throat.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    A certain genre of thriller depends more upon style and tone than upon plot; it doesn't matter if you believe it walking out, as long as you were intrigued while it was happening.
  3. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    75
    If only Taking Lives had given Jolie a greater foil than Ethan Hawke -- a young Kevin Spacey or Jack Nicholson say -- the film might have been a B-movie classic.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    63
    Smarter than your average serial-killer movie, thanks to unusually fleshed-out characters inhabited by a high- pedigree cast.
  5. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    63
    The movie voids a lot of good will with a cheesy ending. This is just the kind of denouement I was hoping Taking Lives wouldn't sink to, yet it does.
  6. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    63
    Sexy, stylish, and legitimately suspenseful.
  7. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    60
    Clearly, much care and intelligence have been lavished on discouraging, routine material.
  8. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    60
    From a technical standpoint, Taking Lives is competent and sometimes even impressive. It is cleanly edited and nicely shot -- at times as cool and rich as a York Peppermint Pattie. Beyond that, there is not much to say.
  9. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    58
    By the time we get to the unsurprising surprise ending, what seemed innovative and challenging in Taking Lives has lost its juice and reverted to formula form, and we leave the theater with that same old let-down feeling of having endured a ritual one more time.
  10. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    No amount of technical skill can substitute for genuine shivers, and in the fright department this picture rarely lives up to its hype.
  11. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    Ho-hum, another serial-killer thriller. Even with Angelina Jolie thrown in for forensic sex appeal, this dog won't hunt.
  12. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    50
    If Taking Lives starts off with a modicum of wit and creepy-crawly scares, it winds up somewhere else altogether: in the cliche-strewn land of preposterous red herrings.
  13. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    50
    The tense, stylish thriller turns into soft-core, slapdash psychodrama.
  14. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    By the pseudo-shocking end, we're half-entertained by the dedicated cast and half-lulled to sleep by the dull, overfamiliar sounds they make.
  15. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    This multiple-twist thriller gets off to a fine, creepy start but eventually becomes too preposterous for its own good.
  16. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Stina Chyn
    50
    Has a lot going for it, but two-thirds of the way through, things fall apart. The film’s weaknesses are directly tied to the narrative.
  17. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    50
    After ''Seven'' and three ''Hannibal'' hits, the audience tolerance for baroque serial-killer flourishes has been duly amped. We require sustained creativity in our sick violence, and Taking Lives, after a token bit of ghastly foreplay, loses its life.
  18. Empire
    Reviewed by: Jo Berry
    40
    It's not hard to figure it out, but Caruso manages to throw in some tense moments that almost -- but sadly not quite -- make up for the film's daft ending.
  19. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    40
    Sadly, Taking Lives, adapted from a novel by Michael Pye, proves to be one long wallow in elements that have long since had their effectiveness dulled flat.
  20. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    It's slick nonsense at best and for the first hour it's watchable. There's cheap entertainment to be had from a thriller in which two detectives are played by beauties as ravishing as Jolie and Martinez.
  21. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    40
    Caruso is a much more resourceful director than this material deserves, but I resented being two steps ahead of the genius profiler and the genius serial-killer.
  22. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    40
    On the plus side, it isn't boring, and Jolie and Ethan Hawke, who plays an art dealer and key witness, generate a certain amount of edgy chemistry. But eventually the filmmakers' desire to shock and tease overtakes any feeling for character or common sense.
  23. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    38
    Even though Taking Lives is not very good, it does contain a) a cool car chase and b) a sex scene in which Jolie goes topless. For some, this will be enough entertainment.
  24. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    38
    The serial-killer thriller of the week, should have gotten a life of its own instead of trying to steal it from Michael Pye's novel of the same name and several other movies.
  25. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ed Gonzalez
    30
    If the Naqoyqatsi-lite score by Philip Glass doesn't exactly make sense of the film's sketchy identity politics, it does complement its utter ridiculousness.
  26. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    30
    The film's finale is truly egregious, a laugh-out-loud combination of ludicrousness and sadism that someone somewhere probably found scary, assuming they never saw a thriller before.
  27. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    30
    Nosedive it does, abandoning all pretense of style and eccentricity for at-times laughable predictability and a parade of unconvincing red herrings straight out of Murder Mystery 101.
  28. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    30
    Taking Lives would have to work nights to reach mediocrity.
  29. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    If you can buy the pillow-lipped Angelina Jolie as a psychic FBI agent in Montreal to hunt a serial killer, then you can swallow the other implausibilities in this retread thriller.
  30. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert K. Elder
    25
    Caruso, who showed flair in the Val Kilmer vehicle "The Salton Sea," has a penchant for the dark side. In this case, it's the plodding, predictable ZIP code of the dark side.
  31. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    25
    The trouble with indulging Taking Lives is that it's taking your time.
  32. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    25
    Because the characters in the movie have only stock obsessions and vague personal histories, there's no reason to be interested in them.
  33. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marrit Ingman
    20
    A twist ending in search of its movie.
  34. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    20
    Jolie is far too good for this tripe but she does give the film its only believable moments, and for the first half, her concentration makes you watch her intently.
  35. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    16
    Pretty much the worst recent example of a genre.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 17
  3. Negative: 3 out of 17
  1. Dan
    9
    Definitely underrated. I thought the characters were amazing. The back and forth between Hawke and Jolie was very well done. I thought Jolie's character was well developed for this type of film. Her quirks and oddities are intriguing at the very least. She is not portrayed as a weak willed woman who can't defend herself. But on the other hand she isn't some unrealistic beauty who can handle everything herself in a really tight dress and finish the scene with a witty line. Bottom line: Jolie plays her character with flaws, oddities, and REALISM! It works! Sutherland's important, yet brief, role helped tie the two parts of the story very well. I thought the plot was well thought out.... It made sense, and was not corny. Not going to talk much about it because I do not want to spoil anything. And the filmwork was probably the best I've seen recently. The focus on the eyes was really interesting because it highlighted everything. It allowed the audience to get in the head of the characters, particularly Jolie. The angles were interesting and beautiful. It gave off the feal of a dark, brooding noir, yet having some extra character. The colors were brought out in interesting ways, particularly in driving sequences, like when Hawke is being escorted back to his apartment by Jolie. Overall an impressive film.… Full Review »
  2. NickA.
    4
    D.J. Caruso’s makeover of Michael Pye’s novel of the same title is one that should have never been made—or at least not in the manner it was. Originally a thriller about a serial killer named Martin Asher (who’d been stealing the lives and identities of his victims ever since his presumed death at age 16), the film version of 'Taking Lives' never reaches the suspense – or thrills – that it intended. Angelina Jolie gives a performance as petty as her character (an FBI profiler named Illeana Scott, who is assigned to help a Montreal investigative unit track Asher), though does so in the company of equally trivial bids by acting veterans Ethan Hawke (who plays James Costa, an independent artist and eyewitness to Asher’s most recent murder), Oliver Martinez (one of the detectives on the case), and Kiefer Sutherland (as the suspected killer). However, the real killer in (or of, I should say) this film is its incoherently adapted screenplay (which, by the way, took a team of four script doctors to finalize), which is made more unpleasant by the messy, inconsistent and unstylish direction of Caruso (whose 2007 release, 'Disturbia', is anything but). 'Taking Lives' is a prime example of a Hollywood misfire and a showy exhibit of humdrum clichés, predictable twists, and poor career choices by otherwise great actors.… Full Review »
  3. Abby
    6
    This movie was actually not bad. The out of place sex scene, the elevator, the hidden room, the cops who weren't really doing their job there were a lot of things wrong but it's worth seeing.… Full Review »
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