Strange beginning, crazy murders where peoples identities and lives are ultimately lived out until another vicitm is found...steamy scenes with Ms. Jolie. Whoah! Ethan Hawke is great in this show! You have to see this movie!! If you have not yet, go rent it now! Action, suspense, mystery, murder, plus a TRULY TWISTED ENDING that you do not see coming!

A female detective on the trail of a psychotic killer discovers love in a dangerous time in this thriller, based on the novel by Michael Pye. Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is a special agent with the FBI who has a reputation for using offbeat methods, but also boasts a strong record as a criminal profiler. Scott is called in by a former Quantico colleague (Tcheky Karyo) to assist two Canadian police detectives, Paquette (Olivier Martinez) and Duval (Jean-Hugues Anglade), who are on the trail of a serial killer who has been doing business in and around Montreal for close to two decades. The murderer has a history of assimilating many aspects of the lives of his victims after he kills them, but there's been a witness to his most recent crime.

Art gallery owner James Costa (Ethan Hawke) saw the killer during an assault, and now finds himself working as an only marginally willing decoy for Scott. As Scott and Costa follow the killer's trail, they find themselves becoming attracted to one another, which is not necessarily a comfort to Scott as she finds her quarry moving closer and closer. Taking Lives also stars Kiefer Sutherland and Gena Rowlands.

The story is about a killer that consumes his victims identity for the thrill of living his victim's lives. This movie is predictable. Do not listen to the review of Greg Russel of WDWB-TV, because it is very predictable. I new who the killer was within the first 20 minutes of the movie. I kept thinking to myself that there was some kind of twist, but there never really was anything significant enough to make it entertaining. This is better (exception of 'Frailty' a great thriller flick) than several of the thrillers I've seen of late, but has the same formula I've seen in several movies. Angelina Jolie is great as usual and Ethan Hawke as well, but this movie is far from anything memorable. DVD Extras include documentaries, theatrical trailer and gag reals with english, and Quebec dubs, and english, french and spanish subtitles.

If you've read the book "Taking Lives" by Michael Pye, prepare yourself for a film that resembles the novel in title only.

That's not to say it wasn't good--it just wasn't the same in any way whatsoever, and so I'll resist the temptation to compare.

The film version of "Taking Lives" is basically just another Saturday night rental from Blockbuster. And if you're smart you'll let that be the end of it.

"Taking Lives" is not the CSI-style thriller it so badly wants to be. Although you'll see a lot of dusting for fingerprints and a couple of scenes in the morgue, no intellect is required. "Taking Lives" does not take any thought.

Something about Jolie is just fun to watch, however. Sure, she is hokey and has made a career off just a handful of sultry, pouty expressions, but to her credit, their pretty great expressions. Hawke is the only one in the film that actually has any kind of range, though the script really doesn't call for it.

There are a few scares, and some twists (both predictable and others not as much), but once I hit "Eject", I could barely remember I had even watched "Taking Lives".

I watched this DVD with friends and afterward said "I didn't realy understand the supernatural angle." I was surprised when they said it wasn't supernatural thriller, so we went through the DVD and picked out many instances where rules of time and space get bent to benefit the plot. There's a hardly a scene where the alert viewer won't say "Hey wait a minute!" Mystery fans expect better writing than that. Also notice the chase scene where the bad guy's gun changes from an automatic to a revolver and back again. I still can't even swallow the basic premise - a serial killer who does not just do "identity theft" but literally moves into his victims apartments, lives their lives (and even pays their bills) for years as if nobody would notice.

I was very caught up in this movie from the first incredible scenes to the final twist. I have read the other reviews and maybe I'm biased because I LOVE Angelina Jolie but I thought this was a great movie. I highly recommend it. The violence, sex, and little bit of nudity all added to this movie. I did not have the plot figured out right away and was highly impressed with how this movie kept my attention all the way through.