Cheap The Watcher (DVD) (James Spader, Keanu Reeves, Marisa Tomei) (Joe Charbanic) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Watcher

Spader's performance only saving grace
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.

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Good if you Think
The 3 good things are that it's a thinker's movie. The excellent special effects. And the plot kicks arse. The one bad thing is that Keanu is in it and I'm not prepared to admit that, yes he is a good phsyco. He is supposidly a bad actor but he can also play a good Christ character in Matrix and a good lawyer in Devil's Advocate. And he is awful at acting but can play these roles well, and they're diverse roles. There are same major things that you need to realize when you watch this movie. I came in giving it 2 stars, but after seeing it I loved it. My mom hated (3 weeks before I saw it) it until I told her this information: James Spader's lover that got killed by Keanu was an affair he was having. This is the only woman he has loved. Reeves is the only connection to the woman DONT READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET and he can't kill him because of that. The picture they flash up on the screen for Jane Doe 3 at the end wasn't of Mira Sorvino, but of the woman who Spader had an affair with. And that's how he knew to go the grave. It was cool touch. Spader had been living in the past. That's why spader couldn't kill Reeves. The flashbacks stopped when he was put at the cross-road in his life: continue to live in the past or live in the future. When he saw the wire to her neck he knew that he had to move on. Great job!!!

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Good, But Nothing Special
Detective Joel Campbell (James Spader) had been tracking a serial killer (Keanu Reeves) for years, always one step behind and unable to catch him. This killer, nicknamed 'The Watcher', methodically stalked his victims and took his time killing them, a man who obviously enjoyed his work. Detective Campbell was obsessed with finding the killer until a special woman worked her way into his life. Unbeknownst to the detective, the Watcher was just as obsessed with Joel as Joel was with him. Convinced that the woman was coming between them, the Watcher made Joel's lover his next victim. Distraught and horrified, Joel retired to Chicago and tried to bury himself in pills and sleep to keep the nightmares at bay.

Bored with the new detective assigned to his case, the Watcher moved to Chicago to renew his relationship with Joel. At first, Joel wasn't willing to play so the Watcher changed the game. He would send a picture of his victim 24 hours before he killed her, giving Joel a fighting chance to save whomever he chose. Unable to resist the urge to try and rescue the innocent women that the Watcher was stalking, Joel found himself too late time and time again. Desperate, he turned to his psychologist, Dr. Polly Beilman (Marisa Tomei) for assistance, completely unaware that the Watcher was dogging his every step and watching his every move...

The Watcher was a decent psychological thriller, but nothing spectacular. I found James Spader completely convincing as a burned-out detective, but there was never really any spark of life that came, even when he was working on the case. He still seemed pretty detached and cold, even during the final scenes. This should have given Keanu Reeves a chance to really steal the show, but he was just not creepy enough in his role as the serial killer. He was okay, pretty uncoordinated in his dance scenes, but just okay. I would have liked to see someone with that cold, creepy, chilly air like Anthony Hopkins or someone completely unexpected in the role as the serial killer. Also, Marisa Tomei was definitely underutilized in the film - the director should have just saved his budget and cast an unknown in the role because she played such a small part. Still, this movie did have its moments and I thought it was an entertaining enough film - entertaining enough to rent and watch once, that is.