Average Customer Review: ( 108 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 found the following review helpful:
Keanu and Spader, Perfect together! Mar 07, 2001
By Jason Ostrowski
"HomeTheaterGuy"
There are two reasons why you should buy this flick, excellent performances from Keanu Reeves and James Spader, and an awesome sound track! The relationship between Keanu and Spader are natural and convincing. I like Keanu in the "Bad Guy" role; he puts his laid-back style into the role and totally sells it. I've read some reviews that knock his performance here, I obviously don't agree! His laid back style is a breath of fresh air from the "off the wall, over energetic, borderline spastic" killers that we usually see in this kind of role. In fact, Keanu's demeanor makes the character even that much more spooky! That being said, I do agree that James Spader is the shinning star here. Spader, as the "burnt out" Cop on the verge of a stroke, is painful to watch (in a good way), Spader makes you feel the pain and stress that his character feels. Marisa Tomei does an ample job at playing her role, the fact that the role she portrays isn't really a factor until the end of the movie, she does the job of keeping the character at the level it was meant to be at. Yes this movie has been done before, a few times in fact, but the combination of Spader and Reeves gives it a new face. For my fellow Home Theater owners, this movie is fun to watch. There is great base and crisp highs; explosions will surely give your subs a workout! My only knock of this movie is the over use of (what is considered by today's standard) hip music. When the scene seems to call for suspenseful music, all of a sudden the rap/rock type of music starts (Stigmata had this same problem), but if you can look (or listen) past that, this is a great flick to watch and own.
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
An Interesting Piece of Film Mar 03, 2001
By Victor Drysel The main thing that made me want to see this movie was to see if Keanu Reeves could pull off the whole serial killer thing. I was impressed with his performance. Actually I was impressed with the whole thing. It was done tastefully and well. It was really nice to see James Spader finally in another movie. In my opinion, he's a very under-rated actor. The main plot line follows Spader's character. He's an ex FBI agent that before leaving was heading a major investigation looking for a serial killer named David Allen Griffin. Griffin (Reeves) is fixated on Spader and wants him back in the game. There's a lot of action, and some cool cinematic shots done that made the movie have a really interesting feel. I recommend this one to the people looking for some good entertainment.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Passable thriller; good for Reeves or Spader fans Mar 22, 2006
By Danno "The Watcher" looks and sounds like a made-for-cable-TV thriller about a stalker/serial killer. I was surprised to learn that it got a theatrical release, which I think accounts for its many poor reviews. This isn't a terrible film by any means. Instead, it's a time killer that fans of either James Spader or Keanu Reeves will probably get a kick out of and there's some lovely location footage of Chicago to boot.
Keanu Reeves plays a serial killer from James Spader's past. He tracks the former FBI agent down and starts killing young women again. This forces Spader to resume his career as an FBI agent; a decision that is fraught with drama because Spader is now burnt-out on police work and is virtually addicted to a variety of prescription drugs. There's nothing spectacularly intriguing or even novel about the film's premise or execution. But if you're a fan of Spader's TV work, you're going to like this one a lot, and it's fun to see Reeves play what is essentially an extended cameo cast against type. Marisa Tomei fans beware - the talented actress is almost totally wasted in a small, thankless role.
Great cinema? Hardly. But as a Spader fan, I enjoyed this one as a rental and think you will too.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Not Very Good But Quite Watchable Feb 24, 2001
By Daniel McInnis Though The Watcher may be a very fun popcorn flick, it's missing some key ingredients in the make-up of a good thriller. The characters are flat, the acting is lame, the storyline is inconsistent and the plausibility, well there is none. Yet having written all that I can't say that this movie is really that bad. Afterall, it's hour and a half running time zips by faster than most forty minute episodes of CSI.Keanu Reeves, despite being burried in the credits, is the star of this film as serial killer David Allen Griffith. He's a watcher (thus the title) who targets introverted young women and strangles them with a piano wire. And as it turns out his greatest pleasure is not in perpetrating the act itself but in the torment he inflicts on the federal agent working his case. James Spader (as intense as ever) plays Joel Campbell, the L.A. lawman and object of this killers twisted obsession. But when push comes to shove Joel cracks under the pressure and moves to Chicago to get away from the killings, only to discover months later that his past has caught up with him. David follows him to the Windy City and begins sending him pictures of his intended victims, daring him to try and find them before he strikes again. By doing this he imposes onto Joel the pain of having had the opportunity to save these girls lives only to blame himself when he fails. It's actually a pretty clever premise but is executed is such a way that the filmmakers seem more intent on going through the motions than having fun with the concept. As the story continues to unravel, we're introduced in passing to Joel's psychatrist, who because she's played by Marisa Tomei, we know will play a large part in the film's conclusion. It's only too obvious and first time director Joe Charbanic seems intent on letting his audience get ahead of him. That's the movie's biggest flaw, that it tips it's hat too soon and, conversely, can't manage to build suspense. As we're engaged in a race-against-time car chase we already know what's going to happen because the killer can't very well be caught an hour into the picture. I suspect this is material that would have been better suited to a veteran director and some tweaking in the casting department. Reeves' over-the-top performance is at times chilling but mostly ridiculous. He seems to shy away from the underlying homosexual themes of his character's relationship with Spader's. That wouldn't have been a bad thing necessarily except that was his only interesting characteristic. Marisa Tomei on the other hand, is subdued in her performance, a role seemingly custom-made for Lorraine Bracco to reprise her role on The Sopranos. It's obviously been too long since My Cousin Vinney, for which she won the Oscar for (and deserved it too). I only hope she has more discretion when it comes to choosing future projects. And she's not even the only actor to have their talents put to waste. Ernie Hudson is reduced to a bit part here, and even when he does manage to elbow his way onto the screen for some face time, it's usually just to clench his jowl and look angry. Chris Ellis is another one, an actor good enough to go unnoticed in box office hits like Armageddom and Godzilla, but this time is saddled with lines of dialogue so bad he's practically got a bullseye painted on his back. I can't help but admit I found this movie at least mildly entertaining. Still, for all it's good qualities there are a half dozen bad ones and I can't in good conscious recommend it when such contemporary classics as Manhunter and Vampires Kiss have gone widely unwatched. All in all, it's a decent movie that may be worth your time but definately is not worth your nine dollars.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Watch The Watcher (3.5 Stars) Aug 28, 2005
By Kevin
"Does Movies"
The Watcher has been in in my video store's DVD collection since it was released on DVD. My video store was robbed once, and that one had been rented before the robbing hence the copy was still there. Ever since it was released I had been meaning to rent it. The cover always looked at me and made me want to see it. But I always found myself saying "Meh, I'll rent it next time". I finally got around to it yesterday and I popped it into my DVD player and realized "I have no clue what this movie is about".
This movie is about a detective Joel Campbell who had been tracking a serial killer but never caught him. After several failures he decided to move to Chicago. The serial killer "missed" him in a sick and twisted way so he moved to Chicago as well to start his murders there. As he used to, he started sending pictures of his victims to Joel and that is where the fun begins.
I found that Keanu Reevs made an excellent villain. He was perfectly believable as a pathetic, scum bag killer. James Spade also did a great job. But this movie was lacking something. I guess it was lacking a lot of suspence. It had its tense moments here and there but nothing that made you gasp or jump out of your seat. Also one (very minor) problem I had was the Mitch character. He seemed like he hated Joel so much but his hatred quickly disapeared. This movie was still intriguing enough and kept me entertained! Id' recommed watching the Watcher!
See all 108 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|