Its hard to dis anything that stars John
Cusack. But Identity, which takes the
standard slasher flick and gives it a
pointless twist that eliminates all the
suspense, is a little hard to recommend.
Sure, its got the classic Cusack charm and
an excellent supporting cast (Pruitt Taylor
Vince, Alfred Molina, John C. McGinley,
other people youve never heard of unless
youre a film geek like me), but it really
ruins itself by trying to escape the limits of
its genre. If you can bear the tacked-on
silliness in the middle and just focus on the
murder-spree story, its good escapist
entertainment. If youre not stoned enough
for that, Id suggest staying home and
watching Adaptation on video,
because the plot to Identity is stolen
from the bad idea for a screenplay that
Donald Kaufman comes up with in
Adaptation. This may be the first
case of a movie being ripped off from the
parody of a movie-within-a-movie that
occurs in another movie that makes fun of
people who make movies.