The Bone Collector

It's time to hold a wake for the cliché-ridden serial killer thrillers in which gifted cops track guiltless murderers through gritty urban landscapes. Here's another one with your usual isolated, criminologist sage (a paralyzed Denzel Washington) guiding your usual chick-cop apprentice (Angelina Jolie) through the standard grisly investigation of an extreme criminal who leaves unnecessarily complex calling cards at the scenes of his crimes. Washington and Jolie try to keep the movie smart, but like every film in this genre that isn't Seven or Silence of the Lambs, this one jettisons its mock intellectual intentions in the last reel for a dumb-downed, prefab, near-death finale. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)