Eye of the Beholder

Rating:
Summary: You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid!
Review: You would think that with a hundred or more terrible reviews of this film posted, one might as well just leave it alone. But, no, the movie was exactly THAT bad to provoke another negative response, at least from me. Who had the brilliant idea to film a thinly plotted espionage thriller as if it was a student art film? And artsy it certainly tries to be. The plot follows a neurotic British agent across the world as he becomes more and more enamored of a sociopathic, yet emotionally wounded, femme fatale on whom he has been spying. There is no rhyme or reason, even in the wide span of human desire and emotion, to explain many of the events and incidents that happen between the two or even why, other than sheer insanity, he is drawn to her in such a creepy stalker type fashion. The movie certainly won't tell you anything. It is too "high brow" for that and would rather show you fancy camera work and snow globe after snow globe. One gets the impression that the director is trying to impress you while completely forgetting that he is filming a trashy romantic spy novel (thus the scenes with a topless Mz. Judd would be defined as being "tastefully done" and "necessary" rather than tawdry and exploitative). You may sit around and discuss the nuamces of this "film" over a latte, but it doesn't erase the fact that it is simply dull and dumb, faulty advertising or no.
Oddly enough, there is an alternate ending on the DVD which, while not redeeming the film, at least ends it in a traditional Hollywood fashion and is a little more satisfying than what those in the theater saw. It is an additional scene where Ewan meets up, rather conveniently, with his long lost daughter. It is set up in the story that he has never seen his daughter before and has had to pick out which girl was his from a school photo of an entire class. He believed so strongly that the girl he chose was the right one that she appears throughout the film as a phantom of his imagination. It actually adds quite a bit of dimension and pathos to his character to find out in the ending that was cut, that he picked the wrong girl. I felt better about the viewing after watching this until I remembered that somebody decided to cut this scene for release, probably because it gave a little too much explanation and insight to a film that tried its hardest to offer absolutely none.
Even if the whole topless issue piqued your interest a few paragraphs back, trust me, it isn't worth it. Watching paint dry isn't the same thing as viewing a painting. That statement isn't as profound as it is nonsensical--like the whole concept of this film.

Rating:
Summary: Eye of the Beholder
Review: To be perfectly honest I think that "Eye of the Beholder" is my favorite movie, but before you send me hate mail just let me explain a few things to you. Okay when I first saw the movie my reactions were,"...What...?" I had no idea what was going on and quite honestly I did not care. That my friend, was because I gave up on the movie. "Eye of the Beholder" is a test for your intellectual skills. The first 15 miniutes were easy to follow becuase Stephan Elliot wanted his audience to be interested and curious. The Eye, (Ewan Mcgregor) was sent to spy on his bosses son whos been stealing money from his father, While following him he observes a women by the name of Joanna Eris. (Ashley Judd) The Eye becomes facinated by Joanna and starts to follow in her foot prints. After that scene people just did not follow the story or get it, and I completely understand, but folks don't give up !!! Okay I am a big fan of this movie and it took me 4 times of watching it to finaly understand the ending Okay so it seems that The Eye is madly in love with Joanna Eris, and that him following her for ten years is...Somewhat romantic if you will, but if you payed close attention you would of noticed that The Eye lost a daughter, and Joanna lost a father (HMMMMM) So with that in mind you have to look at each situation carefully... I thought that, if someone can make a movie that has more then one ending possability that can keep you guessing then that person deserves an oscar. Same with the cast for not messing up the story and keeping the ending hidden for the audience to figure out fo themselves... I would really appreciate mail from those of you who have any questions about "Eye of the Beholder" because I have seen this movie many times and I can answer any questions. So I suggest giving it another chance and see if you can catch any new information that was not clear to you the first time you watched it...

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably BAD
Review: To give this film one star hurts - Where to begin? Although there may be worse films, this one has moments of promise and then falls flat (to put it kindly). A few times when the story seems to be developing, either nothing happens or it cuts to something that has nothing to do with anything. HUH!? It's like one big promise that fails to deliver. The story is disjointed and the editing is jarring. I saw this film in the theaters (and like the joke goes, I didn't care about the money spent, I just wanted my two hours back...) and both when the end credits started rolling and when the credits ended and the lights came on, people had a confused expression ("What just happened here...?") and were shaking their heads, asking whoever they were with, "Huh?".

Rating:
Summary: Exemplifies Ashley Judd's stubborn refusal to play likeable.
Review: Whew!! What a determination to make all the wrong movies. Ashley Judd plays in this the apparent routine female companion of a government official that a certain "Eye" (played by Ewen McGregor) is assigned to watch. But the "Eye"'s assignment quickly ends prematurely. For Joanna Eris (Judd's character) out of a clear blue sky and without warning takes out a knife and stabs the subject of the "Eye"'s assignment, killing him. Soon thereafter Ashley will go outside and quite literally show her behind. Love that or hate it, its entire significance will utterly pale in comparison to the way that Ashley Judd has an obsessive determination for figuratively showing her behind in this, like most every role she plays. Joanna Eris seems to have never done a pleasant or good thing in her life and apparently never will. Still the movie doesn't make her a villain, but somebody we're apparently supposed to somehow sympathize with, showing vaguely some inadequate explanation of her background and how it supposedly made her the monster she is. Having Ashley Judd play her makes it all the more lurid, as there is a parallel between Joanna's stubbornly entrenched but poorly explained evil and Judd's stubbornly entrenched but poorly explained determination to play unlikeable roles that figuratively (and sometimes less importantly but literally) show her behind. Ashley Judd must certainly prescribe to a dogma that that which comes out of her behind does not stink. But even more exasperatingly, on a figurative level, she seems to have an obsessive fixation on an attitude that the cinematic venom that comes out of her obsessive choice of lurid movie roles doesn't stink. By the way, the movie gets no better from the point where she stabs the man. He is probably not her first victim, and by no means her last within the course of the movie. The Eye, rather than clearly relaizing that his assignment has come to a premature end, starts trailing Joanna Eris, like she immediately became the object of his affections! Hence the movie's title, I would suppose. But it doesn't really designate anything worth watching. See if you must to satisfy your curiosity. But be warned: there is nothing really worthwhile to get out of how these morbid obsessions of characters and/or performers play out!

Rating:
Summary: This movie has no idea what it's doing
Review: Although it shows us some interesting scenery and effectively conveys the notion of traveling across the globe, Eye of the Beholder is a very poor film.

The movie chronicles Ewen McGregor's pursuit of Ashley Judd across the world, but it doens't really explain why. There is an attempt to form a link between McGregor's now-gone wife and daughter and Ashley Judd, but that doesn't really hold up. I mean, the odds that his wife and/or daughter were wig-wearing serial killers seems unlikely. Yes perhaps she had a rough childhood, but so did the killers of Thomas Harris's work, and no renegade British agent was risking his life to save them.

Odd (but not terribly interesting) characters abound, from Ewwn McGregors' thoroughly American (don't ask me why) contact to a perhaps lesbian owner of a home for wayward girls and a blind mogul, the only one of whom draws any emotion from the audience.

Nothing in this movie makes much sense, and none of it is terribly interesting. Don't bother watching it, let along buying it. Oh, and incidentally, if you're hoping for some Ashley Judd nude shots, they're not terribly good, so even that isn't motivation for a screening of the film. 3.5/10

Rating:
Summary: SO totally NOT fetch!
Review: This is so NOT fetch! The main character is Joanna Eris, and the movie seems to want us to like her. But I could never like her even if she were the coolest girl in my school. You have no idea how mean she is. She's a serial killer! She stabs people. The movie wants to make her a hero, because like for Christmas one time her daddy disappeared. If my daddy disappeared on Christmas, I would totally think he must have been murdered or something. But Joanna expects us to like her killing people because her daddy disappeared on Christmas. There's even this totally silly dude called "the eye", some James Bond wannabee gone bonkers or something like that, who goes around protecting Joanna like he was just totally in love with her or something and helping her totally get away from police. Why should Joanna Eris get to stomp around like a giant, while the rest of us try not to get stabbed by her big knife? What's so special about Joanna that she should be seen as innocent in all this just because her daddy died on Christmas? Her victims are just as cute as Joanna! Her victims are totally just as smart as Joanna! And when did it become okay for one person to be the executioner of everybody? Because that is SO not what America is all about! The "eye" should totally just stab Joanna!


Rating:
Summary: Scary! Wish my mom had picked me up
Review: I went to see this with my girlfriend. She would probably have kicked my --- well all my conjunctions --- if I hadn't gone. Gee I wish she had just gone to see it with her jock girl buddies instead. Because the heroine of this movie is even scarier that any of those girl jock buddies. Why, Joanna Eris, the heroine of this scary movie just goes around killing every guy she meets. I got scared. I snuck out, telling my girlfriend I had to go to the little boys' room. But really I called my mom on my cell phone and said, "Mom, can you come get me? I'm scared". When my girlfriend drags me to flicks like this, I want to break up with her. But I can't. She'd probably make like Joanna Eris and stab me if I tried. Why do movies get made about anyone like Joanna Eris? I vote someone just push Joanna Eris in front of a school bus instead!

Rating:
Summary: This is bleak!!
Review: This is bleak! Ewan McGregor plays a British secret agent (known only as "the Eye") sent to spy on a diplomat's son because of a questionable woman that son is involved with. Questionable? That doesn't begin to describe it. The agent soon sees that the woman in Question, Joanna Eris, is a maniacal killer, about to stab to death the man the agent was sent to watch. Then no sooner then he finds out he's too late to save the poor man, the agent starts getting seduced by Joanna Eris like she were sweet or something. But Joanna Eris isn't sweet! She's a scum-sucking road
murderer! Then the crazed agent starts following Joanna Eris around like she's the object of his tenderest affections. Maybe in his demented way, she is. As she wanders all over the country, he follows her and becomes all the more obsessed with her, forsaking his job and everything else. What could he possibly see in her? I have no idea. Really. Guess maybe he's just got a BIG lunatic crush on her. Some people actually say they like this movie. But a lot of them say the ending is really bleak. What were they expecting? The only way I could think of to pull a happy ending out of this cinematic train wreck is if both the Eye and Joanna were sucked up into the land of Oz, where they went to see the Wizard, and he gave the Eye a brain and Joanna a heart. But that would be just TOO MUCH thinking out of the box for this cinematic toxic waste dump. It should be left where it is with an ending that fits. Why is this movie a hopeless mess that some are still messing with, wishing it had a "happy" ending? Because Joanna Eris is a mean girl, that's why! At least some of us who are mean admit we're mean. But Joanna Eris tries to hide it behind little whiny pleas, of "Oh poor me. My father disappeared on Christmas one year. So that's why I can carry a big knife among all the hapless guys who err my way and stab them all to death and squeal "Merry Christmas, Daddy!" in the most blood curdling yell ever to haunt the big screen. This is crass, man. Evil takes a cinematic form in this mess. Don't be fooled. I know this must seem like your typical lurid, short on plot or coherence, blurring good and evil, cinematic clunker. But in reality is is so much more. And less! Suck on that! e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e!

Rating:
Summary: WHEREIN LIES THE BEAUTY?
Review: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER is one of those films that revels in its artistic vacuum. Sure, director Stephan Elliott gives us some moody visuals, appealing camera angles and two performances by Ashley Judd and k.d. lang that far outclass the movie. Ewan McGregor's loneliness is so telegraphed and forced he becomes a mere tool in the film. And ultimately in spite of its artistic merits, where does it end? Why would anyone fall in love with a serial killer; his wife and daughter left him--so what, life goes on. His obsession with her, in my opinion, does not justify wanting to "save" her. She's coldblooded, heartless and intrinsically selfish. Lonely--it's her choice, just as it is his. The ending...why in the world is Judd so upset that McGregor knows what she's done?
Ashley has gone on to make better movies; she's a very good actress. Too bad the script didn't use her better.