Table of Contents

Introduction

Boneyard Movie Review (2024): After Police Chief Carter (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) discovers the remains of eleven women, FBI Special Agent Petrovick (Mel Gibson) is recruited to profile the serial killer responsible for the infamous “boneyard” killings. As the police force, narcotics agency, and FBI lock horns, a tangled web of intrigue turns everyone into a suspect.

Boneyard Movie Details:

Release Date: July 5, 2024 (United States)
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Time: 1 hour 36 minutes
Director: Asif Akbar.
Screenplay: Vincent E. McDaniel, Asif Akbar, Hank Byrd, Koji Steven Sakai.
Camera: Joshua Reis.
Editor: R.J. Cooper.
Music: Andrew Morgan Smith.
Production: A Lionsgate Release of a Flix Financial Production, in association with The Film Post, Dream Syndicate, Dream Team Prods., Busy Day Prods., Tetrad Studios, 120dB Films, Filmlens, One Dollar Studios.
Producers: Colin Bates, Asif Akbar, Vincent E. McDaniel, Tamas Nadas, Marc Danon, Roy Scott MacFarland.
Executive Producers: Randall J. Bacon, Danny R. Carmona, Joseph Lanius, Dean Scheske, Paul Gneco, Niten Ved, Stephen Hays, Peter Graham, Samuel A. Levine, Ford Corbett, Ron Weisberg, Anovath Airr Phanthip, Zueli Zhang, Lance Kawas, Fadi Assaf, RJ Collins, Daniel Schultejann, Alexandra Schultejann.
Co-Producers: John Henry, Justin Griffin, Philip Tan, JJ Rogers, Jon Keeyes, Mandi Murro.

Plot

The terrible truth about our world and country is that, unless you live in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area, it’s possible you’ve never heard of the West Mesa murders. This is because there have been so many well-known mass murders and serial killings in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The remains of eleven women and girls as well as a fetus were uncovered by authorities in 2009 when a woman walking her dog in an undeveloped section of Albuquerque, which is a part of the elevated landmass known as the West Mesa, spotted a bone there. The ladies and girls were all between the ages of 15 and 32 when they vanished between 2001 and 2005.

Boneyard Movie Review (2024): Is Boneyard based on a True Story?

Director and co-writer Asif Akbar draws inspiration from those unsolved murders for his brutal, stylish, and sometimes overcrowded film “Boneyard.” The movie follows the case’s essential facts exactly, but it’s a work of fiction with fictional characters that aren’t based on any real-life detectives or suspects. This is a B-movie all the way through, but it’s a good criminal thriller that stays faithful to the story’s true-life outline, largely because of its enormous ensemble of well-known actors and characters.

Mel Gibson, who is currently producing three or four relatively low-key movies a year and typically plays a bearded, cynical, and weary man living in a violent world, crosses all the boxes in this role as the federal profiler Agent Petrovick, who insists that everyone call him Pete.

Gibson’s Pete narrates the story as “Boneyard” embraces crime thriller tropes, such as The Big Board of Clues, which features photos, index cards, and newspaper headlines connected by a web of red string. Pete once remarks, “What a crew we are,” referring to the fact that he, Detective Ortega, and Chief Carter have all lost loved ones to violent crime.

The injured on wheels. We are all burdened with the spirits of the people we were meant to shield. We couldn’t forgive ourselves for being alive when they were dead. It’s the stuff of cliches, but it’s also the stuff we sort of anticipate from films like this, and it usually works.

The statement “inspired by true events” in “Boneyard” means that only a small portion of the plot is based in truth, according to Hollywood jargon. This case pertains to the West Mesa Murders, wherein an inquiry was launched in 2009 following the discovery of eleven deceased women interred close to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In an attempt to transform real-life suffering into a kind of serial killer narrative, screenwriters Hank Byrd, Vincent E. McDaniel, Koji Steven Sakai, and Asif Akbar (who also serves as director) fabricate various law enforcement and mentally ill viewpoints while rewriting the details of each death.

While it’s possible that “Boneyard” was made with the greatest regard for the victims—the film is dedicated to them—Akbar is also responsible for creating B-movie exploitation with the picture, ensuring that the viewing experience remains grim, which undermines any noble intentions. Regarding taste and acting, the feature appears to be quite naive, giving viewers a weak sense of whodunit.