Strong and Moving!

Pretty Good

Excellent adaptation.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

**THIS REVIEW COULD CONTAIN A LOT OF SPOILERS. IF THE READER DOESN'T WANT THE FILM POSSIBLY SPOILED FOR THEM, I SUGGEST VIEWING THE FILM FIRST.**First off, Keanu (David) is a serial killer who decides to kill the girlfriend of this current FBI agent, who was married to another man. The serial killer is really good at setting up booby traps, so I noticed in the movie anyway. When the woman is left home alone, the detective comes over to visit her, to find out she's tied up to a chair in the house. He sees Keanu run out the back, and decides to chase him. Little does this "FBI agent" know that there was some kind of rig he had set up, that burnt the lady to a charred leafy crisp a short time after he kicked in the door to the house. This kind of pulled me into the movie a little bit. It got me connected to the detective's character more, but boy was it a depressing connection.Without giving too much away, and spoiling the film entirely, we'll just say the former FBI agent returns to the force as a detective for the Chicago police. He's all drugged up on medications for psychosis (due to guilt of getting that lady killed), migraines, and diabetes. He's just a complete wreck, until his therapist turns his confidence around. The movie is a game of cat and mouse from there. There's a few good killing scenes. It's really suspenseful as well. All-in-all, I think the acting was good, the script was okay (could've been better), and the dialog was good. I would recommend this movie for those who like police mystery/suspense movies for a one time watch.

BRIEF BLU-RAY REVIEW: This Blu-ray is SHARP! Yes, they likely did some DNR (digital noise reduction) since this is one of the earlier Blu-rays, but not detrimentally so. The picture is sharp, clean and very nice looking. For a 2000 film it looks awesome, and the sound is very good too.Now, to the film...I sure don't understand some of these very nasty and negative reviews. This was quite simply a riveting, well made, well acted Crime Thriller. I honestly don't know what more you could want or ask for in a film of this type. One person here said something about MTV and 'Frenetic Editing'...??? WHAT...?! It was exactly the opposite. YES, the film and visual techniques are indeed stylized, but there is absolutely NOTHING 'Frenetic' about it. Watch the 2nd and 3rd 'Bourne' films if you want to see what frenetic editing looks like. There is a total absence of palsy-induced, shaky camera work. The shots are classically structured and edited. The style comes in with some nice colouring effects thrown in HERE AND THERE and I personally REALLY loved the soundtrack. Yes, it is from it's time, but the songs are very effective and there is a nice blend of original scoring too that fits the film quite nicely. Technically, to me anyway, the film is flawless and looked and sounded great (especially on Blu-ray :)Whether you like Keanu or not might have a bearing as to how much you like the film. I felt that for the part that he played that he pulled it off nicely and his characterization was perfect. I have always really loved James Spader (platonically :) I think he is the living $h!tz of cool. I've just always really dug the understated and low- key, sardonic slant that he gives his characters. All the other supporting actors / actresses did a fine job that also fit in very well with the tone and feel of the film.It is a Classic Serial Killer / Police Thriller with great action, excellent pacing, and a nice time-appropriate feel and style. I really liked the director and the way he did the film very much. I was quite surprised to see that he did not go on to make very many more films. For this Genre, I felt that he delivered a very effective movie. It certainly is not just Mindless Action as so many others are. There is a very real soul and believability to the characters and why they do what they do. I think that the mood and overall feel of the film is perfect, with a well suited soundtrack. Oh, without giving anything away, I LOVED the scene at about 37 minutes as the cops gather briefly in the mall to look for the current victim. Truly Classic!I don't know... maybe people are all into the current trend of Dark, moody Noir Thrillers that are coming out now. And, granted, I love those too, I really do. BUT... I guess even though this was made only about 15 years ago, it's look and style might be considered kind of antiquated compared to newer films. That may be true. But, in my lowly and wretched opinion, I feel that that is NO reason to dismiss this highly entertaining and involving Thriller just because it comes from a slightly different era. Some jaded numbnut snobs here glibly state, "Full of '90s clichés" That just simply is not true. There are a TON of very blah, pointless, and NON-entertaining Crime Thrillers out there, believe me. But, THIS is most definitely NOT one of them...FWIW, here is my take on movies in general. And, I PROMISE not to go on and bore you to death... Simply this: No matter WHAT the style, time period, or Genre, a Movie is a Movie. It is either a good movie or a bad movie (or many times something in between) Now, there may be certain TYPES of movies that you just don't like. For example, for me I find no entertainment value in sadistic Torture Porn films. Others may really like them, but I can say that for me personally, categorically I just do not like them. Okay... Some say that the first 'SAW' film was very clever and a new approach to Horror. Fine... I can acknowledge that for that type of film, it is probably one of the best. But, I just don't like those types. So, the same may be true about this film here. Maybe you don't like the more glossy, somewhat stylized Crime Thrillers that were made 15-20 years ago; maybe they just go against your grain and aren't your 'thing'. well, in that case I would say then that it is likely that you may not enjoy this one, unless you really happen to like either or both Keanu Reeves and James Spader.Bottom line... If you happen to like the style of Crime Thrillers made around the this time, it is one of the more entertaining and well made ones. I personally found it quite gripping and it really drew me right into the story. So, if this is your kind of movie, I really don't see how you can miss... It is not especially 'Weighty' or profound, but then neither is it mindless. To me, it sits solidly in the middle where probably the broadest entertainment value is for most people.So... if you are looking for a good, entertaining, well acted and well directed Crime Thriller and you are not just exclusively interested in the newer Darker, moodier Noirish style that kind of predominates Crime Films at the moment, and you can just sit back and enjoy a good Cop / Serial Killer story, then you probably will have a LOT of fun watching this one as I did.

***SPOILERS*** Mix-up serial killer flick involving retired, at age 30, on a disability pension FBI Agent Campbell who gets back to work in trying to find this serial killer Griffin who seems to have gotten or developed a strong emotional connection or tie towards him. It's almost as if the two, Campbell & Griffin, were soul mates or Siamese twins without being psychically connected to each other.Campbell has moved to Chicago from his hometown in L.A to get his mixed-up and confused head back together which has Griffin travel there as well in order to keep up his relationship with him. This all stemmed from a murder that Griffin committed back in L.A, that we see in a number of flash-backs, involving Campbell's girlfriend Lisa Alton whom he was having an illicit, she was married and he wasn't, affair with. Now back in business killing young women Griffin gets Campbell involved in his new string of murders by sending him Fed-X envelopes with photos of his intended victims who's murders Campbell as well as the Chicago Police FBI and local SWAT team are to try to prevent.The movie really goes nowhere with Grffin doing his thing, murdering young women, and being totally immune from capture. Even a number of his on screen victims, Ellie & Jessica, don't as much as even get a hint that their being targeted by Griffin! Even though their photos, those that Griffin sent Campbell, are splashed all over the TV and newspapers as well as police posters. Don't they ever turn on the TV news or read the newspapers? what's even more fascinating is that no one on the street or knows the two, Ellie & Jessica, don't at all recognize them either as Griffin's intended victims. That despite all the publicity they've gotten by the news media to find out who they are and save their lives! ***SPOILERS*** It seems that Campbell's psychiatrist the pretty Dr. Polly Bellman really got under Griffin's skin in him getting jealous of Polly and suspecting that his soul-mate FBI Agent Campbell was having a romantic relationship with her. This has Griffin drop his guard and leave himself open to getting caught by kidnapping Polly and then, by invitation only, having Campbell come to his rat and roach infested hideout, a deserted warehouse on the Chicago South Side, so he can watch helplessly as Griffin sets her on fire and burns her to death! Just like he did to his previous girlfriend the late Lisa Alton back in L.A!Explosive ending with Griffin getting the worst of it when the whole warehouse where he's holding Polly hostage blows up with him becoming a human torch in the process. Campbell-who together with Polly-escaped the carnage but he, after ending up drenched and almost drowned in the chilly waters Lake Michigan, ends up looking as dry as a camel's bone in the Sahara Desert!

Back when this movie was released, I read someone who wrote this : "If my cat ate bad dinner, then vomited it, her vomit would be better than The Watcher" ! Well, when I had the opportunity to watch it, I knew that it isn't that ugly after all.It's the fashion at the moment : the thrilling hunt for that smart, energetic, and completely crazy serial killer. After 9 years of it, (The Silence of the Lambs) was still swaying. Most of its following had nothing more than the dark atmosphere and the action. However this time, and a la the original, the relationship between the officer and the criminal produces a meaning. The movie points out sadly to the fact that people became too many and too busy to look to each others, so love became hard to find, consequently life became out of sense. It's distinct to have a movie of that kind while being not "out of sense" itself.I hated slight points like that FBI agent who dislikes the returning James Spader. That line didn't affect anything later, so why to make it in the first place ?! Then, the coincidence of being, out of all places, in the same mall which one of the victims works at. But, whatever. That wasn't the problem. The problems though were else where.Let's declare the always concealed, or twisted, or not spoken about much truth : Keanu Reeves doesn't know how to act. He acted in one movie, ironically one of his first, (Speed – 1994). Strangely later, and in a precedent, he turned into worse actor, and worse, and worse as he aged !Supposedly Reeves acts as the evil nuts while being terrifyingly frozen. Ultimately he just did nothing but reading his lines with dead puffed up face, managing to be terrifyingly frozen, yet as an actor ! At one point I said to myself "he doesn't have to slaughter the girls. All what he has to do is acting, or dancing, for them a little !". I deem the scene of his crazy dancing as one of the silliest images ever captured on film at all. No kidding ! Then, the director : Joe Charbanic. I don't know the guy, but according to the way he handled everything I believe he is, or has a passion to be, one of the masters of the V movies' crap. Nothing was tense about the movie. At the first phone call between the lead and its antagonist, see how he films Reeves from 2 angles with still cadres and dull cutting. The acting assures that he doesn't know a lot about acting. And the damn special effect, which he used while the actors' running, made them like idiots chasing each other in a comic silent movie from the 1920s. I couldn't stop laughing in front of that. Here's the cat's vomit. Truly, pedantry is evil !Spader did it good. But he doesn't have the charismatic glow. Despite the shortness and the usualness of her role, Marisa Tomei could be memorable due to her so expressive tearful eyes. Some of the soundtrack's rock songs did soothe the atmosphere or stir it up. I loved the one played during the search for a victim. Its lyrics harmonized with the somewhat deep sad core, embodying – even swiftly – the movie's case of desolate cities, and state, we live. As a script it's nice. It has thrill and good meaning to it, and that's rare if you ask me. As a movie it is not that nice. Wanna know why, then ask yourself why our dear director had to picture everything Reeves sees in the psychological doctor's clinic like it's an electronic image seen from The Terminator's point of view ?! Albeit Reeves as a robot sucks too ! I think that moment summarizes the answer to my question and the whole movie.As you see, (The Watcher) has 2 killers, not one !