Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

I Know Who Killed Me Blu-ray Movie Review

This is a movie that'll give you the blues (literally).

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 26, 2007

People get cut. That's life.

This movie has not been well-received. Critics everywhere have pummeled this movie into oblivion, and rightfully so. The plot is disjointed and haphazard, straying off onto odd tangents and barely piecing the story together at the end. It's a convoluted, dull, and passionless mess of a movie that tries really hard to be good but never moves past the realm of "laughable." It's a shame, really, because the foundation for a pretty good movie and story is here. It's so poorly executed, however, that any semblance of what could work as a decent movie goes straight down the drain. Believe it or not, Lohan is not the problem with this film. She sounds nasally and impaired through a good part of it, but she plays the part well enough. I think if the movie had been played out as a more straightforward "whodunit?" rather than an overly complicated, overly directed, overly played, overly scripted, overly thematic, and underly profound film, it may have reached the level of "passable." Sony must have hoped that Lohan's name would draw in the crowds, if only banking on audiences wanting to see her in the middle of her "downfall," but even her train wreck of a personal life could not salvage this equally horrific picture from the depths of obscurity, a film that should only show itself when a punch line for a bad joke is needed.

No, no, no! They were supposed to amputate my left hand!

Aubrey Fleming (tabloid star Lindsay Lohan) is an all-American middle class girl. She's a proficient piano player, an "A" student, and a good writer who one day finds herself having her fingers frozen and sliced off by a madman. He cuts off the rest of her hand and part of her right leg for good measure. Her mangled remains are found on the side of the road. When she awakens in the hospital about 17 days after first being reported as missing, she proclaims that she is not Aubrey but instead says she is Dakota Moss, daughter of a crack addict mother and currently employed as an exotic dancer. Police want to keep a wrap on the story of her survival, hoping to snuff out the killer in the process. As the story progresses, Dakota discovers a secret about her past and, with the help of late night radio talk show host Art Bell (host of the show Coast to Coast AM in a cameo appearance), a blue ribbon, and a postmarked letter, she tracks down the torturer and solves the mystery of Aubrey/Dakota.

I guess it's only fitting that I Know Who Killed Me is a Blu-ray exclusive title. Blue objects are dominant throughout the runtime of the picture. In the first 35 minutes alone we see blue gloves, a blue pill, a blue gag, a blue laptop bag, a blue cat collar, blue tools of torture that look like plastic toys that belong in a Happy Meal, a blue solution poured on a hand, blue everything in an operating room, a blue hospital gown, a blue iPod, blue roses, a blue photo album, and blue hospital walls. I'm sure I missed a few dozen other blue objects as I didn't notice this phenomenon until it became painfully obvious that the color blue would play an important (?) role in this film. Unfortunately, I never did completely figure out what all the blue means, and I wouldn't be surprised if director Chris Siverston doesn't fully know, either. There is a line where Aubrey/Dakota says that "blue ribbons are for winners; never settle for red." I think that scenes draped in red signify Dakota while blue represents Aubrey. I'm not sure, and I don't much care, either. Oh, and I cannot fail to mention the Spielberg-esque black-and-white shot with only select items colorized (in blue, of course). What was brilliant in conception and direction in Schindler's List comes off as sophomoric and meaningless in I Know Who Killed Me.

What else is wrong with this film? The writing stinks. "People get cut. That's life." This phrase was uttered at least twice in the movie, and I have no idea what sort of late night, lazy, pretentious scriptwriter thought this to be a line worth uttering more than once. When I think of “cut” in regards to flesh, I think of paper cuts or minor scratches, not amputated fingers, hands, and legs. But I digress. Yes, people get cut all the time, but the vast majority of us, thankfully, are never abducted by a psychopath and have our arms and legs chopped off. According to the script, "getting cut" in this diabolical fashion is an everyday occurrence. What else. Ah, yes. "DAKOTA." Aubrey is quite the author, and once she turns up missing, the police confiscate her computer. It's not until one of the lead detectives decides to look over Aubrey's laptop "one more time" does she find the story entitled "DAKOTA." So let's get this straight: Aubrey wakes up claiming to be "Dakota." The police confiscate her laptop to search for clues on it but somehow miss the story entitled "DAKOTA" the first time around? No wonder they couldn't find her for 17 days. And let's not forget to mention the sonogram from 1988 playing in anamorphic widescreen on the Fleming family plasma television.

This is an abysmal film with a decent story buried somewhere underneath this shoddy production. Lazy, unimaginative writing brings this film down from "blah" to "horrendous." It's a movie that is far, far worse than it has any right to be. I never thought I'd write that about a movie, but in this case it's true. Better attention to detail, some re-writes, more competent direction, and slightly above average acting could have made this a watchable movie.

I Know Who Killed Me Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony presents I Know Who Killed Me in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and in 1080p high definition for this Blu-ray release. I was impressed overall with the image quality. Black levels are spot-on throughout. There are quite a few darkish scenes in this movie, be it outside at nighttime, in a smoky gentleman's club, or a dreary torture chamber. When bright blue or red hues are not present, black is the primary color scheme, and the disc handles it as well as any I have seen to date. On the down side, flesh tones appear more on the reddish side of the color palette and a few scenes, especially early on in the film, appeared overly soft and blurry. Overall, this is a fine transfer from Sony, a company that has been releasing some astounding transfers as of late. This is yet another. It's not their best effort, but it's solid and never lacking depth, clarity, or sharpness.

I Know Who Killed Me Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I was nearly as pleased with the audio aspect of this disc as I was the video. Sony has provided two lossless audio tracks for I Know Who Killed Me: A PCM 5.1 uncompressed track as well as a Dolby TrueHD track. My one complaint is that I was at times disappointed with the dialogue. I often struggled to hear what was being said, especially during a sequence following a football game. Dialogue was muffled and lost in the overly loud ambience, creating a lifelike effect but at the same time creating an annoyance in the track. At times the dialogue seems to have been cranked up in post-production to compensate, but the result was more unintelligible dialogue. There are a lot of hard- hitting, pulse-pounding tunes permeating the soundtrack, and they sounded great. Granted, I've never heard any of this music before, but it's loud, clear, and boisterous. It's bass heavy with tight and hard hitting lows. Also impressive was the use of surrounds, especially late in the movie. For the most part, I Know Who Killed Me is a dialogue driven film, but when the situation arises for some spiffy effects, the track really shines, immersing the viewer in the blue world of Aubrey Fleming and Dakota Moss.

I Know Who Killed Me Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

It should come as no surprise that a film that flopped as badly at theaters as I Know Who Killed Me has been released on home video with a miniscule amount of supplements. The film did not come close to recouping its $12 million budget during its ephemeral stint in theaters, and it's likely that home video sales will suffer the same fate as the film's theatrical run, bringing in little cash to the studio, and most of it in the form of buyers who simply cannot say no to a disaster of a film. This small and uninspired set of supplements will not contribute to sales in any way, shape, or form. Included is an alternate opening (480p, 1:21), an alternate ending (480p, 1:04), an extended strip dance (480p, 6:08), bloopers, (480p, 2:48), and 1080p trailers for Superbad, Resident Evil: Extinction, The Brothers Solomon, Spider-Man 3, and Hostel Part II. All of these were completely worthless, though I must admit I liked the alternate ending better than what was used in the final cut of the movie.

I Know Who Killed Me Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I Know Who Killed Me is just a mess of a movie. We never know who the killer is (besides seeing his face) and we never know his motivations. The plot is convoluted and it's up to Art Bell in a bizarre and fleeting role to spell out what's happening to us and to Dakota. The violence is awkwardly handled yet grisly, and it's difficult to take it seriously when the tools of torture are bright blue and look like plastic digging toys 4 year olds would use in a sandbox. The writing is lazy and unimaginative, the direction stale, and the acting rather flat. Sony has provided a good visual and aural presentation but has offered up perhaps the worst set of supplements yet on Blu-ray. I would have rated it higher had they excluded everything but the alternate ending and trailers. That's how awful the other two supplements are. Unless you have a strange fascination with bad movies or Lindsay Lohan, I would not even recommend renting this turkey.