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The Lookout

Play trailer Poster for The Lookout R Released Mar 30, 2007 1h 39m Mystery & Thriller Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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87% Tomatometer 168 Reviews 74% Popcornmeter 50,000+ Ratings
Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a star athlete, has the world at his feet. Then a devastating car accident leaves him with brain damage and his bright future dimmed. He takes a job as a bank janitor and must write everything down in a small notepad in order to remember. Some former schoolmates lure Chris into their inner circle and rope him into helping them carry out a heist at the bank.
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The Lookout

The Lookout

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Critics Consensus

The Lookout is a genuinely suspenseful and affecting noir due to the great ensemble cast and their complex, realistic characters.

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Critics Reviews

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Derek Malcolm London Evening Standard The Lookout is a well made psychological thriller which only disappoints with its ending. Rated: 3/5 Nov 2, 2007 Full Review Tim Robey Daily Telegraph (UK) It's a pity Frank is too busy laying on the wintry atmospherics to make the story grip as it should. Nov 2, 2007 Full Review Peter Bradshaw Guardian A cracking armed-robbery thriller. Rated: 4/5 Nov 2, 2007 Full Review Eddie Harrison film-authority.com ...unexpectedly menacing and with a palpable tension throughout... Rated: 4/5 Feb 24, 2021 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins There are too many loopholes in the storyline and an undefined set of rules regarding the main character's brain damage, which generate more aggravation than satisfaction. Rated: 5/10 Nov 26, 2020 Full Review Debbie Lynn Elias Behind The Lens Gripping, intense and involved with a sympathetic permeating dichotomy, despite a few slips, The Lookout is the film to be on the lookout for this weekend. Nov 14, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Nathan W Things like this make me wonder what exactly critics are looking for when they rate films. This certainly was different, but is that all it takes? If so, I've been reviewing movies wrong all these years. Creativity definitely counts for something in my book, but execution and writing is what makes a picture truly great. And this one was mostly lacking in those areas, which is why I had a really hard time getting into it. For starters, it tried to be too many things at once, and it didn't do any of them particularly well. It wasn't an exciting heist movie, and it wasn't the most interesting character drama either. (I guess they figured two half attempts would add up to a whole movie, but it didn't quite work out that way). I'm certainly no head injury specialist, but the main characters disability wasn't the most believable. He seems pretty much fine, except for some problems with memory, which makes the latter part of this movie much less interesting. Levitt's character just didn't feel right to me at all. He didn't seem to be super into the role, and his performance was a little uneven. I saw a lot of shade thrown Jeff Daniels' way in other people's reviews, but honestly, he was one of the highlights of this production. His character was incredibly likable, both witty and amusing, and he played the role of a blind man very convincingly. Isla Fisher was also solid. Probably the best overall performance, and the one that felt the most genuine. Personally, I would have liked to see that part of the story flushed out a little bit more. It could have have added some much needed drama to the second half of the movie, and raised the stakes considerably for our main character. But instead, its there and gone just as quickly, having almost no bearing on the plot whatsoever. Things in general moved along too slowly for my liking. The whole first half is setting up a character that I still felt no connection to, and the second half was a underwhelming robbery that I couldn't care less about. It might have helped to show his life before the accident, to get a sense of how he used to be. You know... Happy and what not. But we only see him now, and there's nothing to compare it to save for one flashback and the opening scene. And it just wasn't enough to feel for the character, and the struggles he had to overcome. I honestly didn't pay much attention to how it was filmed, or to the score, but I guess that means that neither were remarkable. I don't know, the whole thing just felt like a lower budget production to me. Like they didn't put the most effort into making it. The writing was questionable, the script was nothing special, and the whole thing lacked believability. Things did come together nicely towards the end, where our main character used everything he had learned to "win the day". I get that it was supposed to be inspiring, and maybe a little ironic, but I still didn't feel any sort of way about it. Then at the very end, much like in the beginning, we get a brief glimpses of what happens outside of the main story. Stuff that would have been interesting and helpful to include, but was rushed through instead. I really tried to like this one, because a heist movie with a reprehensible twist is something that I've never seen before. But cool idea or not, the execution simply wasn't there to make this any better than average. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 06/23/24 Full Review KB B This was such a compelling film with exceptional acting and storyline. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels were both exceptional as usual. It's definitely worth the watch. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/09/24 Full Review Daniel S The most annoying actors by a long shot. Learn to act. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/24 Full Review Jerod S Levitt had a bad crash in highschool and deals with some memory issues. He's hoodwinked into a bank heist of the place where he cleans at night. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/28/23 Full Review Jelisije J A enjoyable flick that does everything right with its characters and plot points, but doesn't blow my mind enough to call it great. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/10/23 Full Review Cali C As soon as realizing the Ass h*le Jeff Daniels was in it-- thumbs down from me & millions of others for life. Terrible decision on any movie makers part to employee any of these loudmouth toxic clowns like Mark Ruffalo, Jim Carrey etc....and piss off/alienate half the country from the jump. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 05/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Lookout

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a star athlete, has the world at his feet. Then a devastating car accident leaves him with brain damage and his bright future dimmed. He takes a job as a bank janitor and must write everything down in a small notepad in order to remember. Some former schoolmates lure Chris into their inner circle and rope him into helping them carry out a heist at the bank.
Director
Scott Frank
Producer
Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, Laurence Mark, Walter F. Parkes
Screenwriter
Scott Frank
Distributor
Miramax Films
Production Co
Spyglass Entertainment, Miramax Films
Rating
R (Sexual Content|Language|Some Violence)
Genre
Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 30, 2007, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 21, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$4.6M
Runtime
1h 39m
Sound Mix
Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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