Rating: 
Summary: Keanu Reeves & James Spader
Review: What can I say... "Keanu Reeves" & "James Spader" = Success! I've just recently gotten into the KenauWave but I gotta tell you, just when I thought Point Break, Sweet November and The Devil's Advocate was about the best of all Keanu movies, low and behold I catch "The Watcher" earlier tonight on StarzE and its coming on again in minutes and I am going to watch it again! It's good. Get it - Watch it and see why Keanu Reeves is the super star he so deserve to be. And James Spader is one that Hollywood should stop ignoring. Give this guy more films, please! I rate this movie a 5 for the Actors, the great thrilling scenes. It had me on the edge of my sofa clutching the pillow!...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I liked this movie, mostly because of the depth of the characters. James Spader plays a burned-out (seriously burned out) cop with a guilty conscious and a psycho killer (Keanu Reeves) who "missed" him. The psychology behind the entire movie is intense, dealing a lot with the social aspects of city life, and it's apathy. If you're looking for a straight hack-and-slash serial killer movie, this isn't your bag... there is some of that, but this flick is more about the people involved.
Rating: 
Summary: This watcher hardly bears watching
Review: The Watcher is one of those movies where you might find yourself thinking of what it might have been. The basis of a nifty little thriller is there, but in the hands of director Joe Charbanic, the story never flowers. There are all sorts of ultra chic film techniques and editing tricks. These are interesting enough to watch. They demonstrate that the visual arts still have some unchartered territory. In this case they also serve to emphasis the fact that the film is all style and no substance.FBI agent Joel Campbell [James Spader] moves from Los Angeles to Chicago after a shattering experience in which his girlfriend becomes a victim of the same serial killer Campbell has been looking for. The man is now a wreck. He takes pills for depression and anxiety and must often inject himself with a drug for his crippling migraine headaches. He is seeing a therapist named Polly [Marisa Tomei]. One day Joe comes home to find police swarming around the apartment below his. A girl has been murdered. After an agonizing night of nightmares and migraines, Joe gets around to opening his mail the next morning. There is a FedEx package which contains photos of his murdered neighbor. He realizes that the killer he pursed in L. A. has come to Chicago. And what comes next is a gruesome game in which the hunter becomes the hunted and is taunted in the same way the police sometimes do to a criminal at large. Joe receives more photos and has twenty-four hours in each case to save the victim. This truly could have been a taunt and suspenseful movie, if the director hadn't dropped the ball so often. Elements that start off interesting wind up going nowhere. For example, much is made by the therapist about how much Joe and the killer, David [Keanu Reeves], need each other, but no valid explanation of this codependency is ever offered. No reason is offered for David's doing the things he does nor is there anything about his character or mannerisms to hint at a motive. James Spader gives us a great performance, but because Keanu Reeves has to work at being creepy and Spader doesn't, it might have been better if they had traded roles. I have always enjoyed Reeves's taking roles that are a stretch or a risk for him, but I have decided that he is successful commercially and artistically only in action hero epics like Speed and The Matrix. Tomei's role is small and is important only as a plot device. She deserves better.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay.
Review: I watched this movie and it was okay.The plot needed a little work but its okay.Keanu Reeves does a good job playing the killer that stalks these women.I recommend that you see this movie,but don't think this movie will have the best plot in the world,but this is a decent movie.
Rating: 
Summary: This movie sucked.
Review: This entire movie [was really bad].The script is boring,and the cast
gave really bad performances.Don't watch this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Whoa!
Review: I started watching this film and thought ok. This is shaping up to be an ok Thriller. Then the director said " LET'S BLOW THINGS UP. FORGET PLOT, ACTING AND SUSPENSE. THE AUDIENCE IS TOO STUPID TO NOTICE THESE THINGS ANYWAY. JUST GIVE THEM EXPLOSIONS!" Very sad. It could have been so much more, it looked to be so much more and then it just lost the plot. It was quite gripping until the explosions started. The ending is poor and lacks suspense, but it does have some big explosions. Maybe one day they will do some Thrillers with some real bite and edge to them. Give it a miss.
Rating:
Summary: Should be 1/2 a star...
Review: Let me preface this by saying that I am glad I only rented this. I'm only out 3.95. As much as I tried, I could not bring myself to like this movie.
It tried to be a game of cat-and-mouse. It tried to be full of suspense. It failed on both counts. The acting...atrocious. Though Keanu may not be the best actor on earth, at least he tries. Not here. I remember reading somewhere that he only did it so that he would not get sued. Feels like it. James Spader...well. Marisa Tomei...no comment. An all-around horrendous movie. Recommended only for the masochistic among us.
Rating: 
Summary: The Watcher
Review: How can I start this? The Watcher was a cheezy cat and mouse serial killer movie. I got to see a sort-a serious side of Reeves' acting, and Spader and Tomei were cool. The scenes where Keanu was watching Spader bugged me out, although I got tired of seeing the Web-cam image quality. I probably liked it (still thinking about it). Anyway
Rating:
Summary: *dazed and confused yet somewhat pleased*
Review: First of all, i'm glad I only paid 10 dollars for it. It was pretty good, it did have some very suspenseful moments, those chase scenes, but what was UP with the dancing (I almost died laughing while watching that). The music sounds like it was slapped on in some parts (didn't really match that well), and Keanu's voice was very...weird. Was he forcing another voice tone or...I got used to it in the end, but still. And the scenes with the therapist. I was like...huh? What's going on here? I may rewatch the film again soon. And where did the lover thing come from? Yep, i'm gonna rewatch this. *o__O*;;
Rating:
Summary: Spader's performance only saving grace
Review: James Spader is an often underappreciated talent who usually manages to enhance whatever film he takes part in. The Watcher is another film that fits into that niche.
The movie itself is typical. Just another under cooked thriller with very little meat on it's bones. Spader does manage to elevate the film with his tortured but not overdone performance. His emotional struggle seems compelling despite the relative been there done that factor of everything else about this movie.
He helps make the search for the potential of Keanu Reeves stalker seem somewhat intriguing, even if we can already predict the outcome.
Unfortunately he can't save this film from utter ordinariness. Keanu Reeves makes a poor villian. Even though I've always found him likable, (and a better actor that he's usually given credit for), he just hard to take him seriously in this role. The film also manages to be slightly annoying. The directors had there early experience in music videos and it shows. During any scene that's supposed to be suspensful, they overload the screen with creative and flashy cinematography. There are weird slow motion and blur effects straight out of what you might have watched on MTV the night before. All this just manages to drain any sense of dread out of the proceedings.
All of this would have been a little less obvious if the ending had atleast been decent. To bad that's just not the case. Eventually the filmmakers seem like they decided to wrap things up before they actually needed to. We are rushed to an abrupt and easy conclusion after Reeves kidnaps Marisa Tomei's pshychiatrist character. On a side note, Tomei is out of place here to, any actress could have played this nondescript and thankless role. I won't tell you what happens but suffice to say it's very little. Any strength the film had built up to that point is just neglected. Somebody at the studio must have decided production was taking to long. Or those making the film just decided they didn't care anymore. All in all, instantly forgetable. I wonder if one of the studios is ever going to churn out another one of these factory made thrillers...and it actually turns out good. You can't manufacture originality.
| 
