Hangman dies a quick death at the box office

Movie Title:    Hangman

Grade:  C

Rating: R

In a Nutshell: Al Pacino.  There’s THAT.  This is the eighth time he has played a police detective.  

The old-school child’s spelling game, Hangman, held promise for a good thriller, but the movie disappoints in a pretty mediocre paint by numbers who-dunnit.

 

Uplifting theme: 

• “Sometimes finding out the truth leaves scars.” – Christi Davies (Brittany Snow)
• “Scars tell stories.” – bad guy (I don’t want to tell you who that is!)
• Revenge
• Friendship

Things I liked:

• It was refreshing to see Brittany Snow in a hard-hitting murder mystery, after seeing her in fluffy, fun movies like Pitch Perfect By the way, the 3rd Pitch Perfect movie hits theaters in 3 weeks!  I confess, the franchise is a guilty pleasure for me.
• Karl Urban plays Detective Ruiney as well as he does “Bones” in Star Trek Into Darkness , although "Bones" is definitely a more interesting character.
• I first noticed the beautiful, tough Sarah Shahi when she starred in Person of Interest: S1-5.  Her real name is Aahoo Jahansouz and she’s a descendant of a real Persian Shah.  Cool.  Unfortunately, she seemed too young to be cast as the captain of the police department.

Things I didn’t like:

• Typical bad guy monologue at the end.
• The cops never take the time to try to figure out what the hangman letters mean.  It seems like they could have plugged them into a computer to consider various options.  You get to see what the letters spell out towards the very end, but no one even mentions anything about it.  Missed opportunity there.
• Silly ending.
• The whole plot feels contrived and forced with annoying plot holes.

Tips for parents: 

• This is NOT a family-friendly film.
• F-bombs and other profanity.
• Lots of bloody, gruesome deaths.
• Naked chest of some dead women.
• Paintings of naked women.

MOVIE REVIEW MOM

@trinaboice