A homicide detective teams up with a criminal profiler to catch a serial killer whose crimes are inspired by the children’s game Hangman.
Genre : Thriller
Country : USA
Cast :
Al Pacino : Archer
Karl Urban : Ruiney
Brittany Snow : Christi Davies
Director :
Johnny Martin
My opinion on “Hangman”
“Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?
There’s a letter carved into her chest.
A game of Hangman. “
Mix the game show “Wheel of fortune” with a “Se7en” -ish thriller and you get a movie like “Hangman“. A film in which two detectives, Ruiney (Karl “Dredd” Urban) and Archer (Al Pacino), are chasing a ruthless serial killer. The victims are related to each other in a thoughtful way. Fortunately, there’s also this journalist Christi (Brittany “Bushwick” Snow) who provides the two seasoned detectives with ingenious clues at the right time. Probably that’s why she’s nominated for the Pulitzer prize. The crazy game the killer plays, is the famous “Hangman” game. And although Archer, as a retired detective, kills (no pun intended) his time while solving crossword puzzles in Latin, the solution of the puzzle doesn’t seem to be so self-evident.
Journalists. Curious and they never, ever listen.
“Hangman” isn’t such a bad movie per se. To be honest, they succeeded in making it pretty exciting at certain times. But just like the game “Hangman”, its course is rather too linear and too obvious. The way some clues are found, is sometimes quite ridiculous. If all investigators were as inventive as this duo, solving murder cases would be a piece of cake. The most annoying thing in this film was the interference of the crime journalist Christi who, as a would-be authority in the field of murder cases, asked the right questions at the right time and interpreted clues in a perceptive way. The picture with the body of detective Ruiney’s wife contained such an obvious clue. It’s almost incomprehensible that these experienced detectives never noticed it. But no problem for our brilliant journalist. One look of her at the picture in question and she already knew what the others had overlooked.
Pacino. Still a joy to watch him acting.
Even though Al Pacino isn’t written off as an actor yet and in my opinion he can still bring the quality of a feature film to a higher level thanks to his brilliant acting, his contribution here is somewhat a disappointment. “Manglehorn” is a perfect example of a film where Pacino demonstrated his class and professionalism as an actor. Even though this film is content-wise nothing to write home about, this class actor made it a fascinating spectacle. My conclusion was very simple. The film in question wasn’t necessary to prove that Pacino is an exquisite actor. This conclusion also applies to “Hangman“. The recruitment of sounding names guarantees the required media attention. But I’m not sure if this movie deserves that.
Saturday night movie of a higher level.
Without Al Pacino, Karl Urban and Brittany Snow, this film would be nothing more than a typical Saturday night movie about a serial killer who’s fond of word games. The film will easily overshadow other crappy weekend films and certainly guarantees a pleasant evening in front of the tube. On the one hand it is recommended for lovers of the serial killer genre. On the other hand, the result is rather dull and uninspiring. Certainly not something to get excited about. And Al Pacino can’t fix it either.
I’m Peter.
Born in 1966.
And living in Belgium.
I’ve been married to Veronika for 10 years already.
And together we have two lovely kids , Karolien and Filip.
And guess what ….. I’m a big movie-fan. Who could have guessed that!
As long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by the medium film. And the number of movies I’ve seen till now, is even unknown to me.
I liked it All Pacino adds suspense and gravitas, loved the soundtrack end piece by Geordie. House of the Rising Sun.
I was pretty letdown down by “Hangman” too,Peter. I liked the cast but the story was so beaneath the talent assembled here. If this had been a “no name” cast….maybe it would have worked but when Al Pacino,Sarah Shahi and Karl Urban can’t save your film,you need to learn to write better scripts.