The Zodiac

This straight-to-video offering about the serial killer who terrorized Vallejo with a seemingly random series of murders in the late 1960s is not to be confused with David Fincher’s upcoming Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Alexander Bulkley’s The Zodiac tells essentially the same story of the unsolved slayings and the surrounding media circus, but with enough inane jump-cut editing and hoary cop-on-the-edge clichés to fill a Law & Order marathon on TNT. The lead officer on the case is played by TV vet Justin Chambers, who has clearly studied at the David Caruso School of Masculine Emoting—no jaw goes un-jutted. These shortcomings would be forgivable if Bulkley didn’t botch all attempts at suspense and significance by indulging in slasher-flick gimmicks and generic ’60s montages.