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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: Quite okay
Review: FBI-Agent Campbell (James Spader) is obviously missed by a serial-killer (Keanu Reeves), who follows him from L.A. to Chicago to continue to play a deadly cat-and-mouse game with him. The killer manages to kill two more women, but when he kidnaps Campbell's psychiatrist Polly (Marisa Tomei) he gets into big trouble.
"The Watcher" by Joe Charbanic is a quite good thriller with parallels from "Seven" and "The Bone Collector" (both are better though). The use of some camcorder pictures and video-clip editing adds some speed and atmosphere to the movie, but these things don't make the weak end better. Nevertheless "The Watcher" is worth a watch.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Utterly mediocre...
Review: I do wish I could say something positive about this film as I'm a fan of both James Spader and Marisa Tomei, but they're both wasted on this, honestly.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Average thriller
Review: This is your average thriller movie, and is worth watching once. I would not recommend purchasing it. Keanu Reeves is definitely the downfall of this movie. If you can look past the lousy acting from him as the psychopath who strangles young women with piano wire, you'll be satisfied after watching this. It was an okay movie with a definite flaw. Keanu is just not intimidating, and couldn't portray a person who would be. The Watcher was entertaining, and James Spader carried it well. It had some intense scenes, and an interesting plot which made it somewhat worthwhile. I certainly would not and will not add it to my DVD collection though. There wasn't really anything that stood out to me that was any different or more unique than any other thriller I've seen. It was average. I would not recommend that children see it though. Its R rating reflects violence (including some gruesome aftermaths of bloody killings) and continuous (and pointless) profanity. All in all, The Watcher was okay, and it is worth watching once if you can look past Keanu.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You Like Scary Movies?
Review: If you like scary movies this is a must have to add to your collection to make it complete!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: HORRIBLE!!!!!
Review: This had to be one of the worst films i have ever seen. I love spader, but why!!!???

overacting, just plain dumb and unbelievable...

in the first few seconds i felt embarrassed to be watching.

rent it and you will see what i mean.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Piano wire wouldn't leave you this breathless!
Review: Now this is what we need more of; pretty boy actors renowned for nice guy roles taking a walk off the beaten commercial path to explore darker subject matter.

In Joe Charbanic's twisted little pressure cooker of a movie The Watcher, Keanu Reeves not only wandered into seriously more disturbing material, he took a tent with him, threw away the compass and camped comfortably in it, the results of which include a transformation that's as far away from Neo, his Matrix alter ego, as humanly possible. It's plausible that The Chosen One himself might have turned tail and fled if ever faced with Keanu's chillingly charismatic 'Watcher'(the killer of this piece), whether he knew Kung Fu or not.

Publicly violated and torn apart frame by bloody frame by the critics upon release, The Watcher, ironically enough, should be thankful that the reviews were so scathing. All this highly inaccurate reviewing does is further serve to lower your guard for what becomes a truly tense and highly strung game of cat and mouse. Taking the classic story of nemesis and cop and training a television camera on it, Reeves portrays David Allen Griffin, a smartly dressed and suave individual with a penchant for strangling young single woman with piano wire. After feeling abandoned by the FBI agent Joel Campbell (played with praise-worthy restraint by the impeccable James Spader) who was assigned to his case and who Griffin has come to admire and, in a way, almost depend upon to give his vocation validity in the grand scheme of things, Griffin relocates to Chicago in order to pick up on their unique relationship afresh, news that awakens a buried dread within the distraught and regretful Campbell. It's only a matter of time before Griffin is, once again, rendering his piano unplayable, dragging Campbell once more into a nightmarish paranoid world where every second counts.

Charbanic's tale presents the unfolding events from an original and distinctive perspective, one that lends itself admirably to the director's strengths. Namely, the media. With the superb inclusion of Griffin 'willing to try and make things work' between himself and Campbell by sending the agent photographs of the targeted victim and allowing the police twenty four hours to locate her, it serves as the perfect motive for the movie to truly tighten the tension screws which it succeeds in doing in excruciatingly spectacular fashion. The plot weaves tighter and tighter like Griffin's piano wire as by each murder, we witness Campbell's deterioration as the horrifying realisation that he may not be capable of saving the victims becomes an increasingly real sensation, a matter touched upon in a beautifully downplayed sombre moment between Campbell and his counsellor, played with admirable strength and vulnerability by Oscar winner Marisa Tomei.

Add to this stew the wonderfully haunting score, the truly shocking yet undeniably sylish violence and decidedly unsettling cinematography and you begin to wonder why The Watcher was ever so persecuted in the first place. Ignore the critics and don't go home alone. Take The Watcher with you.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better than expected...
Review: After reading the reviews here, I was not expecting much out of this movie but I was willing to give it a chance because of the great cast. The performances were terrific! It is Keanu at his creepiest and Spader was so vulnerable in his role. The suspense of the killers toying with his victims had us climbing the walls. We were all so tense watching this movie! If you are sensitive to graphic violence, don't even go there! This movie is not for family night. All in all it was a thrilling ride up to the end.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: garbage
Review: this could possibly be one of the worst movies ever made. the trailer made this movie seem like a movie to see, but then when you watch it you just want to walk out..if you ever wanted to be a psychic for a day though, i highly reccomend that you buy or rent this movie,..it's that predictable. 1 star.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: I'm not usually one to write a negative review about anything. However, sometimes there are things that are just irritating enough to prompt such a review.

This particular movie is really a waste of talent. James Spader, Keanu Reeves and Marisa Tomei are almost mere props here. Very little character development, very little depth. It seemed as if they were going through the motions, much like a group of actors/actresses under a contract they can't get out of.

The premise is decent enough but it is pretty much a stock formula psychological 'thriller'. It sounds as if it could have been good. But I kept waiting and waiting for some twist, for some rush, for something unique, but then the movie ended. I was left with a 'that's it?'

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Really Really Bad Movie
Review: All performances uninspired. Action sequences ridiculously unrealistic. In all a real snoozefest.


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