Rating: ½* out of * * * *
Rated: R for violence and language.
Running Time: 93 minutes
Starring: Keanu Reeves, James Spader, Marisa Tomei.
Directed by: Joe Charbonic
When I first saw the previews for Joe Charbonic's new serial killer thriller, I thought "Hey maybe Keanu might come out with a somewhat decent movie". I was somewhat disappointed with "The Matrix" though I liked it never-the-less. I went into "The Watcher" expecting a somewhat good serial killer flick and walked out with a headache, some confusion and wondering why they wanted to make this movie in the first place. I may be the only one to give this movie this low of a rating, but when you have to sit through a movie, checking your watch every five minutes to see if it is over yet, then it is definately bad to me.
James Spader plays a detective who has been haunted from memories of his past. A killer has been following him trying to latch on to him, after he did something horrible to his girlfriend. He has a therapist (Marisa Tomei) who is trying to help him through all this trauma he is going through. Now the killer (Keanu Reeves) is sending him pictures of the girls he is going to kill, and Spader has one day to try to find them before its too late. Now all of New York City has to strap down and try to find these girls before the body count becomes bigger.
Jumbled plot? Bad writing? Sloppy Direction? Flat Acting? Thats pretty much what all this movie has in it. First of all the plot, if that is what you want me to call it, is so underdeveloped that is painfully confusing and so predictable that by the end of the movie I leaned over to my girlfriend and said "Let's go". I wasn't going to be insulted anymore, but she insisted on staying saying it has to be good somewhere somehow. Of course when I left the theatre she thought it was good, while I thought the opposite. I had to wonder why Keanu Reeves a somewhat talented actor chose such a terrible role as a serial killer, who isn't believable as a serial killer, nor does he fit the serial killer role.
James Spader has never been someone in Hollyweird I have liked, and in "The Watcher" he doesn't prove to me he can really be anyone I will like, after starring in the huge flop earlier this year "Supernova" he really hasn't had much in the way of a job. His character is completely and utterly underdeveloped and we know nothing about him to like or dislike. Marisa Tomei is one of the top-billed stars and has around fifteen minutes of total screen time.
Joe Charbonic's direction is not good either, and some of the sloppily made scenes in the movie are so dumb that I started to get a pounding headache. A five year old could have made a better film than this mess. The script is somewhat good, but the dialogue that comes out the actors mouth is stiffly said, and doesn't make much sense sometimes.
Could "The Watcher" have been a good movie? Its highly doubtful and in the end product it clearly shows that Hollywood is starting to run out of steam in their movies. With "Almost Famous" coming out in a few weeks, I'm highly waiting for a really really good movie worth the watch, and worth the wait of a trip to the movie theatre, until then though I tell you to avoid "The Watcher" if anything possible, go see "The Way of the Gun" its not great but at least its better than this.
Reviewed by Brandon Herring 9/12/00
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