Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

josesilva-48704 Here's the thing- this film got completely overshadowed by the David Fincher movie which is vastly superior, but this isn't a bad film at all, more like just adequate. I remember seeing this and pondering why everyone- at least the critics- hated it. You can give this one a shot, it isn't as bad as the ratings imply.

elshikh4 True that the Zodiac's case is bigger, but this one handled it, or rather handled its beginning, well as a small thriller, yet sorrowfully it looked more like the movie of the week (yet with higher directing), or a pilot for a next never-seen mini-series ! And with the lack of some points it looked, at its worst, as a Docu-drama.The movie cared much about the crimes' exact dates so the Zodiac more than caring about the police officer who's after him so his family. It could've been better and deeper if this script gave more concern for the characters. For instance why this officer is so confused and obsessed; is he a work-addict?, feeling a certain threat to his manhood?, just wants to assure his intelligence?,.. to the end of answers for the question that this movie never asked. The character's development was vague since originally the character itself was flat. So when I felt the overacting at one point I blamed the script firstly more than the young cast.Speaking of which the child actor who played the officer's son seemed too eccentric as if he plays an autistic ! This inanimate look and performance weren't for the sake of the character as simply a bright kid who wants to end his fear and also communicate with his father through the only subject he's interested in, though this he-swallowed-too-much-starch kind of status made that kid just a weirdo who looks like someone would turn into a Zodiac himself !, not to mention so many boring scenes for him at his father's office that led eventually to nothing! Remember the scene in which his mom finds the astronomy's papers under his bed; the funny acting and the non-writing managed to deliver a real overdone scene to a laughable extent, like the mom found a homosexual magazines under her teen son's bed or something !? To ask tearful in great agitation : "Do you wanna talk about it ??!!".The consecutive flashy stock footages didn't show but the usual clichés in any movie deals with the late-1960s' America, besides the natural chronicling for the movie's era, they wouldn't even try to generalize something deep out of that to refer to respectable conclusions else hollow common ones such as "this society became madly violent" without pinpointing to reasons or roots or anything.This movie seems to succeed in 2 points; firstly that touch of the political satire near the end when the police is after the black people asking the killer himself about that "Negro" they chase. It's a clever moment that could refer to how the American police was all along after the wrong, or the wronged, people. But as a matter of fact racism wasn't the main reason of how that murder psycho who killed 37 persons during a whole decade got away with it!. Yes, it was some bitter irony that may explain the Zodiac's prosperity at the late 1960s, though in rethinking, it could've been better if that was built correctly as a commentary from the start.The other possible good point of this movie is when it presents the police officer chasing the criminal on his own like a lone ranger, so this one-hero sort of dealing wasn't right, which drove him lastly to fail (it nearly drove him nuts !). I consider that some satire against the cow-boy's style or method. It could be the movie's suggestion to answer the most disgraceful question in the history of the American police : why the Zodiac is never been caught ? At least at this early period.So as a thriller it's another average one, and disappointing as well considering sad end where the mad killer wins !. And as a documentary it's watchable yet still its main problem is that it shows only and not trying seriously to explore. Therefore it's nothing but the movie of the week, which means that you wouldn't need it, nor lose catching anything important in it, if you already read its events before !

jmbwithcats THE ZODIAC takes a different look at the famous Zodiac Killer case from other screen treatments of the murders. More than a simple crime story, the film is an emotional thriller focusing on the murders' impact on victims, their families and the wider community. The film follows a police detective (Chambers) from "Grey's Anatomy", and his son (Culkin) who become obsessed with the murders and endanger their family in the process.This movie also stars other TV show stars of current drama, such as Robin Tunney from "Prison Break", William Mapother from "Lost", Rex Linn from "CSI: Miami", and Philip Baker Hall from "The Loop".What touches me most perhaps is that it took place in the town I grew up, The Bay Area of California. Sure, it happened long before I was born, but the fact he was never caught is haunting to a child, whose imagination reinvents in timeless fashion the monsters of yesterday's endless mysteries.Chambers plays a detective who is in over his head. Perhaps if the FBI were more involved early on he might have been caught... I guess we'll never know.A film with decent acting, pacing, music, overall feel is like those suspenseful thrillers I used to see as a kid on TV, and I always enjoyed that personable feeling, almost like no one is in character but just feeling out the story that stays true to the real life mystery we were all left with in the reality of The Zodiac.My rating: 6.5 because it failed to draw the characters in, sadly so little was ever discovered about the Zodiac that there wasn't a lot to go on going into the picture and that hole is painfully clear in the end result. Every subplot to the film is a dead end, mirroring the investigation. We see several times how easily the Zodiac eluded capture due to the ignorance and incompetence of the police.

siderite It's hard to make a movie about a real event. Everyone knows the outcome. In this case, we all know that the Zodiac was never caught, so all we have to look for is the interaction between players and the general feeling of the movie.But here the movie fails. The lead (Karev from Grey's Anatomy) is playing well, but doesn't really have much role to play. Just a work alcoholic cop trying to catch a guy that leaves no useful evidence. His wife, predictably, doesn't like being left on second place and tries to leave him. His work suffers. The cop's kid shows promise as he is both curious and intelligent. Alas, his mother discovers this and with a terrible "Oh my god" ends this plot line.All in all, a rather accurate yet boring description of the insides of a police case from the point of view of the cop. And no, you don't get to see the Zodiac :-P