The Bone Collector

Denzel Washington really didn't have to get out of bed for his performance here as "Lincoln"; a now-quadriplegic forensics expert who is prone to dangerous seizures. Not wishing to risk surviving one of these in a vegetative state, he has elected for euthanasia. Before he can implement his plan, though, his former colleagues alert him to a series of grisly murders with folks in taxis being hijacked and left to die in the most horrific, sadistic fashion. Intrigued, he hooks up with rookie Angelina Jolie ("Amelia") to try to suss out who's behind these apparently unconnected crimes. It doesn't take them long to discover that their protagonist is leaving clues and when a man and his kid become the latest victims it becomes a race against time to get to them before the tide does. The suspense here is very much in the first fifty minutes, and the performances from Washington and Jolie are strong, but it can't sustain the menace and by midway through has become a rather procedural cop drama with an inevitability about it that really robs it of any real punch at the end.