Charlie Daines is a morphine-addicted detective on the trail of a psychopath who is setting up murders and broadcasting them live on the internet. As he closes in on the killer, Charlie realises that he is to be the final victim.
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An aging Armand Assante stars as a grumpy, disgruntled, temperamental detective Charlie Daines, eaten up with cancer, trying desperately to fight thru his pain to solve a difficult case concerning a serial killing Master Hacker whose murdering Big Company CEOs for a live on-line audience, while also capturing the cops working the crime scene through hidden cameras displaying them for millions to witness. Embittered and hard-nosed, Daines is just too stubborn to check into a hospital, receiving morphine from an ex-addict he helped get off junk, just so he can cope with the agony of his disease. But, the NYC police must cooperate with the feds who have hired a cyber-specialist, Adam(Raffaello Degruttola)to assist in finding the psycho while "dinosaur" Daines continues to pursue leads using his instincts and nose through good old fashioned police work. Here's the rub..how does a sickly detective, combating coughing fits and exhaustion, find a killer of supreme intelligence? While, I'll be the first to admit that this film is indeed derivative of other films regarding cyber-psychos and the pursuit of their capture, I think what makes "Dot.Kill" work is Assante's effective performance as the detective contemplating life, trying to enjoy the time left with his wife and son(..keeping his disease secret from them out of love), while doping up as he bickers with his superiors and partner over tackling the case his way as they demand his cooperation with Adam, whose knowledge(..and language) of the cyberspace is of importance. The cat-and-mouse, as one would expect, soon involves Daines because(..isn't it always obvious?)he's the man tracking his identity and whereabouts. The twist on who the killer really is might work on some, but I feel that viewers who have adapted to these kind of thrillers will figure it out before it is revealed 75 minutes in. Couple the "colorful" cop talk from one to another(..little profane insults towards one another and plenty of f-bombs to go around)with having to watch a slowly dying man looking worse and worse as the film continues, might be a difficult watch for some. As usual in these kind of cop-psycho thrillers, Daines travels through seedy locales on the street to get info(..and morphine)and we see that a few of the wealthy targets engage in carnal activities. It's also a challenge to root for Daines, who is rugged, foul-mouthed, easily annoyed, and speaks his mind whether you like what he has to say or not. But, as we watch during the film, he's a good cop whose "flaws" make the character so interesting and rich. Assante is in practically every scene and the whole show. I'd recommend checking this out for his performance, even if the film itself feels old-hat and familiar.
Dot.Kill is unfortunately not a very original film. It suffers from taking to many ideas from other films from the past 10 years. It is no surprise as this is just one of many films like this that is simply a product of its time. Of course, if you are into this type of thing you might find some enjoyment as Armand Assante gives a solid performance as usual. But even he couldn't carry the film as a whole on his back.Assante plays a detective named Charlie. Charlie is a sick man who appears to be dying and as a result is heavily addicted to morphine. The story unfolds with a serial killer murdering people through the internet and posting it in real time for millions of people to see. As the case starts to unravel, Charlie becomes sicker and sicker.Basically, this movie is a cross between Seven and Fear.Com and that's not a good thing. There is nothing supernatural about the movie like Fear.Com but the whole thing with posting the murders online is a similar concept. And the relation to Seven is the direction the movie attempts to take. But let's face it, Seven was a hundred times better then this or any other movie that came out in the genre for the past 15 years.I will admit that the first 30 minutes of the movie was a bit intriguing as Assante is a fun actor to watch in just about anything he is in, but, the movie loses its muster halfway through and things become predictable and boring. The ending is rather anticlimactic, I might add.Overall, it wasn't a good movie but it really wasn't a bad movie either. I think the only reason to watch the movie is if you are a Armand Assante fan. 6/10
Dot.kill, Digital Jesus? Couldn't find this one as it was rented under the title Digital Killer. Many aliases give away it's a B-movie.After many internet related movies, killings through wires, addicted cop-movies there wasn't really any surprise in the story. Armand was acting over the top, I didn't feel any sympathy, rather irritation.How this one got 5 out of 10, rather than number 5 of worst movies is unclear to me. Straight to the sell out bin with this one, don't rent it unless you're not annoyed with quite simple story lines.(spoiling bit) Why does a cop not check for cameras when after every killing he is portrayed at the crime scene on the television? Couldn't these cameras be followed to a destination? Is the cop's son really that stupid, that he doesn't warn his father earlier on?
One movie, different names... Dot.kill, Digital Reaper, Digital Killer here..... pfff seen that before, probably a bad B-movie... Well I was surprised, in a good way. Assante produced this one and I must say, it's not bad at all. I'm not a real fan of Assante, but he does a good job. You can look at it in different ways, finding the bad guy came for me in second place, Assante's struggle was for me more interesting. A movie with 2 stories, if you want to see a good b-movie with a human story to tell watch it. I wasn't bored during the movie and that says something. I've seen better movies but there are a lot worse than this one.