Diane Lane’s “Untraceable” Poster and Trailer

I’ve been a Diane Lane fan for a long time. She’s been around forever (remember her in “The Outsiders” from 1983), but she’s really become a star in the last decade or so. I usually enjoy her movies although, looking through her list of films, I have to admit I’ve missed more than a few.

And that’s probably the problem with “Untraceable” (official site). Diane Lane is the biggest star in the movie…and audience’s don’t really think of her movies as “must see” films.

“Untraceable” is about a serial killer who rigs contraptions that kill his victims based on the number of hits received by a website (killwithme.com) that features a live streaming video of the victim. Since that sounds exactly like something that would happen in one of the “Saw” movies, thousands of people naturally log on to watch this person die. Lane plays a “cybercop” (do we actually have those?) who pieces the mystery together and risks herself and her young daughter (of course) to try to save the victim and solve the crime.

The preview actually doesn’t look that bad, but reading what the film is about is like reading a mish-mash of other film plots that have been done to death (no pun intended) over the past decade or so. I’m not sure what attracted Lane to the project except maybe a good paycheck, but this kind of material somehow seems beneath her. Why does every Hollywood actress think she has to appear in one of these type of films?

The movie might actually be decent, but I can’t see audiences lining up to see it with so many other choices to check out right now. I think it’ll do decent box office then do fairly well on DVD.

“Untraceable” Trailer

“Untraceable” is set for release on January 25, 2008.