'Mindhunters' is mildly entertaining Agatha Christie rip-off

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

MINDHUNTERS (R) Two Stars (Fair) A violent and modestly engaging thriller about seven FBI trainees, abandoned on an isolated island as a training exercise. Then the aspiring profilers begin to get picked off one by one. "Ten Little Indians" anyone? Christian Slater, LL Cool J, and Val Kilmer co-star for director Renny Harlin. Dimension Films, 106 minutes.

The trainees are supposed to hone their skills at observation in order to solve a make-believe crime on the island. Instead, they begin to be killed in succession — and in particularly gruesome ways — and those not yet killed have to scramble to solve the real crime to save their lives.

If the plot sounds familiar, it should; it's just the latest in a zillion variations of Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians," (aka "And Then There Were None") which famously involved a daisy chain of death.

Of course, in such films, characters routinely drive viewers nuts by rushing off alone or going into dark corners. Still, a few of the attacks have an elaborate, demented imagination behind them. And, at a time when too many characters smoke in movies, it's amusing to see at least one character die because she simply has to have a cigarette.

Renny Harlin directs "Mindhunters" in a slightly grungy, B-movie style that satisfies the subject matter while doing nothing to elevate it. The performances, too, are adequate, but unexceptional. "Mindhunters" spent two years on the shelf before finally escaping into theaters. And, indeed, it's worthy of a brief theatrical run before riding off into the DVD sunset.

Rated R, with strong violence, graphic images, profanity and sexual content.