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The Watcher

The Watcher

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ok,but not the best
Review: Let me start this off by saying,Keanu Reeves is not good as a serial killer.He wasn't scary at all.He was way too friendly.I kept expecting him to say"Hey,how are you doing?I'm gonna kill you".Now I think he is a pretty good actor,but not in this movie. The plot was ok.There were a few scenes I didn't really like and should have been left on the cutting room floor.The main problem was,there was no character development at all.Ok,so all in all,rent this if there is absolutly nothing else to rent.This is one of those movies you see when nothing else is there.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is the Climax
Review: I really hated this movie and it was a waste of 3 bucks to rent. Keeanu is just not a very good actor and he really can't do a serial killer...Nobody can do a role like Bill and Ted and then turn around and be a serial killer...He needs to find his niche and feed off of it...If Keanu keeps this up his career is going to go down the toilet like this movie did

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Yuck!
Review: I just finished The Watcher. I found it to be garbage. Keanu played Keanu. Dull, dull, duller. And what a stinker way to end a film. Ever notice how serial killers in these types of movies want to get caught, try to get and at the end of the movie, get caught?? The director of this movie had this meticulous serial killer who planned everything out. Then, the killer becomes sloppy and any old girl would do. Garbage. I guess if you can't find anything you have not seen yet you should watch this. But, don't buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Watcher
Review: This is the best film ive ever seen,i saw it advertisd ages ago when i went to see charlies angels,i knew i really wanted to see it the first time i saw the trailer.i was really dissapointed that the reviews in magizines werent very good cos i thought it was brilliant.its definatly my kind of film!!i would reccomend it to anyone that doesnt mind blood.but dont see it if u r squimmish(sorry about the spelling!)Keanu Reeves is so gorgeous in it!!!this is a must see film!!!!!! Rachael :-)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I don' understand what this film means ...
Review: Since I don't want to criticize this film, I'll just describe my experience. I watched this film with high expectations.Because I like Keanu Reeves. But when the film went to the end , I thought this film did not have a trick or a surprising soryline yet. Expecting a surprising trick, I watched to the end . Nothing happened! I was disappointed and went home.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Keanu and Spader, Perfect together!
Review: 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.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Obvious to the end -- A REAL waste of time.
Review: Even though Keanu Reeves was cast as the villain (was his mother the casting agent?), this movie seemed to have promise at first.

Unfortunately, from beggining to end the film was obvious, and, at times, even ridiculous. As if the fact that this type of movie has been done over and over again was not enough; the characters have no depth and the story-line drags on due to a lack of intelligent matterial/ideas (how many times is the viewer expected to relive the hero's dream sequence?!?!?).

As I do not want to give away any scenes in this movie (out of respect for those lucky enough not to have seen it yet), I will not disect it scene by scene. (Though it would be fun.) Suffice it to say the prospective viewer should be aware that the villain is comic rather than terrifying, and the hero fbi agent has no depth (he's just there). Even the fact that the hero goes from emotionally troubled, to determined, to just totally inept does nothing to help him be interesting. (The whole story line is plagued by the same issues.) The Wathcer is not even able to draw the viewers' attention by making the special effects and action sequences anything more than bland.

The Watcher is a waste of time and money. Sitting through this once was difficult enough, but to put it into a video/dvd library in hopes of watching it over and over again is a waste of space.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: So much wasted potential
Review: The Watcher (Joe Charbanic/Keff Jensen, 2000)

This movie disappeared from theaters quick, and now I know why. Despite a fairly good performance from Keanu Reeves, who goes back to the days of playing the disaffected sociopaths that made him great (River's Edge, Permanent Record), this film straddles the line between confusion and predictability with a deftness I've rarely seen even from the most incompetent veteran directors. Charbanic and Jensen are to be commended for achieving Russ Meyer status on their very first try.

Joel Campbell (James Spader) had a breakdown after he saved his married girlfriend (Yvonne Niami) from a serial killer he'd been tracking in Los Angeles for years. Unfortunately, she still dies, as a direct result of his clumsiness (watch the film a couple of times, you'll figure out how to put all these pieces together... I think). Campbell moved to Chicago in order to be near her grave and get away from the job for a while, and now spends his time taking huge amounts of antipsychotics and living on disability pay. Of course, the serial killer (Reeves) follows him, and the game begins again.

Reeves-- and Ernie Hudson in a minor role as Spader's supervisor-- give the only two performances in this movie that can be called emotional without cracking a smile. Spader and female lead Marisa Tomei, playing his therapist, both seem to sleepwalk through the movie. A better performance by both might have turned this into at least a serviceable thriller, but that's not what we got. **

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A 4 star nail biter!!!!!!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful movie! Had read and heard so many negative reviews from critics. I really didn't understand their point. The brightest light in this flick was Reeves.He played the best criminal/bad guy i've seen in a long time. And I felt that he really enjoyed himself!!!!If he should read this: *Please play more bad guys in the future!* He really gave James Spader a fit playing cat and mouse. A better script, someone other than Spader (who was very weak in his role)would have tightened this good crime drama into a 5 star. But don't let these "minor" issues stop you from buying and enjoying this one! *Also, loved the spooky music played on the DVD menu!*

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Premise, But It's Been Done Before
Review: In the continuing tradition of movies that James Spader just can't seem to turn down, "The Watcher" served as yet another vehicle for Spader to perform well in, while the rest of the cast just seemed to go through the motions of acting. The film had an interesting premise, that of a serial killer that stalks women in order to kill them, but first send photos of his intended victims to a cop that he has drawn into his web of murder. Unfortunately there are plot holes in this film that I could drive a bread truck through. For instance, Spader plays a LA cop that quits the force and moves to Chicago so that he can live in squalor, but before you know it, he's serving as a FBI agent hot on the trail of Reeves, over-playing the part of the serial killer. It was refreshing to see Reeves in a role where he didn't play some sort of goof, but instead was the antagonist of the film, although he acted in his characteristic style. While the storyline has been played before, the filmmakers decided to spice it up by adding a bit of history to the characters played by Spader and Reeves. Marisa Tomei plays the psychologist that is helping Spader deal with his inner demons, and of course is eventually confronted by Reeves, and drawn further into the plot of this film. The special effects are rather cheesy, and when things are set on fire, the flames look particularly cartoonish. I've certainly seen all three of these actors in better films, but this one is at least worth a rent.


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