THE BONE COLLECTOR

A bone to pick
Guest Review by Mike Flores
I have never had a problem with periods in psychotronic movies when the major studios accepted the horror, science fiction, juvenile delinquent and slasher movies. No one seriously argues that The Bride of Frankenstein, King Kong, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, or any psychotronic film made by a big studio is not psychotronic because it was made by "capitalists" -- so why do so many of us resist when, in fact, the standards we of the Psychotronic Film Society had 13 years ago have swamped the entertainment world? No longer do we have to search out fuzzy bootlegs of Hong Kong action stars and Japanese animation, or sit through special effects that suck because there was no budget. I don’t know how long this will last, but for right now there is no end in sight. LONG LIVE THE PLATINUM AGE OF PSYCHOTRONIC!

The reviews of The Bone Collector compare it to Silence of the Lambs. Well, that doesn’t really fit this film. This film owes much more to Italian filmmakers like Dario Argento, and to the French Grand Guignol theatre which for over 50 years put on slasher shows with extreme gore live on stage. Now if you had told me five years ago that Denzel Washington would be doing a graphic and gory cannibal scene in a major Hollywood slasher movie, I would have laughed at you. Who could have guessed?

And for a homage to slasher movies, this one is a terrific little terror ride. Denzel Washington plays an ex-cop who was paralyzed while investigating a cop murder, and Angelina Jolie is the cop on the beat that must act as his legs, eyes and ears. The two are excellent. Although we don’t see Angelina Jolie in an evening gown until the last scene of the movie, we are talking about not only one of the most beautiful women working in film today, but that rare actress who understands glamour. It is odd that when fashion magazines are turning away from supermodels and using more and more Hollywood stars on their covers, Hollywood is afraid to return to glamour in movies. She is dressed as a cop for most of the film; please, somebody, remake LAURA and cast her as the lead. And get real fashion designers to do the clothes. Why Hollywood takes actresses that wear designer clothes and appear all over fashion magazines and puts them in T-shirts and jeans, I have no idea.

Well, as usual with slasher movies, the killer is exposed in the end, but the revelation of his identity is secondary to the actual tortures and killings. This is a rough ride. And worth the trip.

Psycho killer; finger amputations; torture; bone removal without anesthetics; woman in bondage; p-faves Michael " HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER" Rooker and Angelina " HACKERS" Jolie; cannibal defense; finger breaking, hey, even I lost count!

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