MINDHUNTERS

"Profile your killer"

As the last part of their FBI profiler training, Jake Harris's (Kilmer) takes his class to an offshore training facility to work on their final and most important training case. Left to their own devices the team has to solve the case of the puppeteer but when the clues start claiming the lives of the team, they face a race against time to discover who is the killer amongst them.

Taking over a year to reach the box office in the US and going straight to the home entertainment market everywhere else; can 'Mindhunters' be that bad?

Renny Harlin has had a very mixed directorial career. For every 'Cliffhanger' or 'Deep Blue Sea' you have a 'Cutthroat Island' or 'Driven'. Primarily known as an action director, 'Mindhunters' gives him the chance to try something slightly different. While the film does contain action elements, this is more of a who-done-it than his usual no-brainer fair.

Crime scene investigation and suspect profiling have become major plot devices for both the big and small screen. The viewing public have become fascinated with solving crimes with science and 'Mindhunters' tries to keep up with this trend. The FBI profiling training school ran by Jake Harris, played by Val Kilmer, comes with the usual mix of trainees. You have the leader J.D. Reston (Christian Slater), the overly confident Lucas Harper (Jonny Lee Miller), the paranoid Vince Sherman (Clifton Collins Jr.) and the timid and panicky Sara Moore (Kathryn Morris). Add to this an outsider in Gabe Jensen (LL Cool J) and you have a mix of characters and suspects that add to twists and turns.

While the ensemble cast might look impressive on paper, without an interesting script they can't really do much. The twist and turns come thick and fast as the mysterious killer works his or her way through the group but the film starts to fall down when it comes to driving the story on. The profiling team are meant to be the best trainees in the FBI programme but they don't really make much headway into investigating or profiling the killer that is stalking them. This is a major flaw with the plot as the team abandon their training and scientific methods to just end up finger pointing.

'Mindhunters' tries to be an intelligent thriller but just doesn't have the script to live up to its potential. Instead we have a run of the mill plot that twists and turns to reveal a less than satisfactory conclusion. The film will entertain but don't expect it to stay in the mind for very long.