Identity

It’s 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, it’s got the classic Cusack charm and an excellent supporting cast (Pruitt Taylor Vince, Alfred Molina, John C. McGinley, other people you’ve never heard of unless you’re 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, it’s good escapist entertainment. If you’re not stoned enough for that, I’d 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.