UNTRACEABLE — ★ ½ — Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, Joseph Cross, Daniel Liu, Mary Beth Hurt, Tim De Zam; rated R (violence, gore, profanity, drug use)

"Untraceable?" "Unappetizing" is more like it — or perhaps "unrealistic," "unconvincing" and/or "unexciting."

And when you consider just how many talented people were involved in the making of this "torture-porn" thriller, the correct title for it is probably "unwatchable."

Despite the film's pretensions, it's pretty hard to stomach. Also, the movie takes potshots at the media and the Internet for supposedly sensationalizing violence. But the somewhat accusatory tone is odd, considering just what is shown here.

Diane Lane, who's obviously slumming, stars as Jennifer Marsh, a Portland-based investigator in an FBI cyber-crimes unit.

Normally, Jennifer works cases involving Internet "predators" or identity theft. But now she's trying to find a killer who's using Web site visitors as "accomplices." The site features footage of people being tortured, and depending on the number of "hits" the site gets, the faster the victim dies.

This criminal has already tortured and killed an animal, a Vietnam War veteran and a news reporter. And as Jennifer comes closer to an arrest, the killer gets closer to her as well — and starts making this a personal issue.

Director Gregory Hoblit made a great leap forward with last year's well-acted thriller "Fracture." But this is a serious career regression.

Admittedly, he is working from a script that features terrible dialogue and ludicrous plotting, but Hoblit is still unable to coax anything that even resembles quality movie acting from this cast.

Lane and Billy Burke both appear to be sleepwalking through this mess, while Colin Hanks looks like he's searching for an exit (he plays one of Jennifer's fellow investigators).

Only veteran Mary Beth Hurt escapes unscathed. She has a handful of scenes as Jennifer's mother.

"Untraceable" is rated R for scenes of torture and other disturbing violent imagery (shootings, animal cruelty and violence against women), graphic blood and gore, scattered sexual language (mostly strong profanity), and some drug content and references (lethal use of blood thinners and other chemicals). Running time: 100 minutes.

---

E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com