After seeing the "Identity" trailer once, I purposely avoided reading up on it and didn’t even hit the official site in the fear of having it spoiled for me. So I came into this movie with a fresher than a new boob job attitude and some hopes of getting whacked across the melon with potent genre surprises. So did this party girl jump out of the birthday cake, taking me aback while flashing her muffins? Read on …

"Identity" definitely had my horror-trained braincells working overtime for its first hour or so. By frame one, I was so into this flick...trying to piece it all together like an overzealous brat on too much sugar attempting to get that “Jenga” game to stand upright. I took the blocks from the bottom and put them on top non-stop, that’s fer damn sure! This "Horrorcoaster" ride just kept thrilling me over and over with its clever ideas (dug the “fate” element early on), its absorbing mystery and its gripping chain of events. It also helped that all these goodies were served up through a “snap that neck like a twig” pace, with a delicious dark atmospheric vibe galore coating it.

Character-wise, this baby was so on, with the strong actors behind the roles making them so much more engaging than they must have been on paper. I mean, can you really go wrong with Ray freakin' Liotta (Rhodes) jazzing up the scenery with his unique brand of edgy charisma? Not in my cannibalistic cook book; I love the dude to pieces and he rocked here as per usual. 

SIDE NOTE: Today is a big day my friends; I finally come around to blessing Ray Liotta with the coveted moniker: “The Liotta”. After all those stellar performances over the years, including this badass one, he damn earned it. Pop open that champagne and get the crack whores in here! PARTY AT “THE LIOTTA’S” HOUSEHOLD!!!! END OF SIDE NOTE.

The same can be said about intense John Cusack (Ed), boner-inducing Amanda Peet (Paris) and always likeable John C. McGingley (George), who all owned this movie with their top notch talent. A bang-on cast, makes for more endearing characters which makes me care more about them, which raises the stakes of the action. So yes, more often than none, my eyes were glued to the screen like Ben Affleck's lips to J-Lo’s backside continent.

Throughout this trip, a couple of horror movies titles sprang into my head. Particularly "Final Destination", in terms of its “didn’t see that coming” kills. I expressed myself out loud verbally in the theatre at least twice, much to the dismay of that rambling mook sitting next to me. That’s a good thing! "Identity" also shifted momentarily into a slasher/whodunit mold and for some odd reason “I Know what you did Last Summer” echoed in my noggin. I know, I know, Arrow drinks too much Vodka…bare with me on this. The feel here just felt somewhat similar to that aforementioned flick in terms of mood and staging. Ironically, there’s actually a scene where Amanda Peet looks up, arms extended reaching for the rainy sky yelling “I give up; what do you want from us!” or something along those lines. Sound familiar? Maybe that was a purposeful wink to “IKWYDLS”, maybe not...you be the judge.

So I was living and feeling with this tale thus far; sure I didn’t care for Jake Busey (Robert) whom I found to be too “over the top” and got annoyed real fast by Clea Duvall’s (Ginny) constant whining and crying (just open the door yo), but I effortlessly let that stuff go. I was just having too much of a hoot-and-nanny to be bothered by the smaller grinds. But then the hammer was raised above my head threateningly; sadly for me my horror smarts was on to what was going down too early; and to add insult to injury, I didn’t like the idea one bit. In consequence, for the rest of the film, I perceived the narrative trying to lead me in various directions while picking up on how it was firmly taking the path that I feared it was taking.

When the hammer violently came down and my theory came through, I got semi-bummed out. Some of the themes and ideas that I felt closer to got negated in the process, while the investment I had in the characters, their relationships and the happenings dropped a few notches down the chart. What a shame! I was LOVING this experience, but they had to go “that way”! Having said that; I went along with it anyways (not much choice) and found myself to still be engaged (to a lesser degree) till the end. At least the movie wound up leaving me with a very gnarly final frame and I left the theater a happy camper.

James Mangold and Ray Liotta also worked together on "Copland".

"Identity" was written by Michael Cooney who also wrote Jack Frost 1 and 2.