The Watcher

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matthias s "The Watcher" offers a star-studded cast, with Keanu Reeves and James Spader leading the charge. While I'm a devout Keanu fan, this film left me scratching my head. The camerawork is a dizzying mess, making it hard to appreciate the excellent cast and their performances. James Spader is perfectly cast, but the decision to make Keanu the bad guy feels like a missed opportunity. Swap their roles, and the movie might have had some real intrigue. The flashback scenes are downright bizarre, and the thriller label falls flat – it lacks the tension and eeriness you'd expect. The plot, though decent, is marred by predictability. The director's choices, especially regarding camera work, are a letdown. The killings' motives are perplexingly weird, and aesthetically, it's a disaster. Despite some redeeming qualities in the plot and cast, "The Watcher" falls short of its potential, leaving me unthrilled and disappointed. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/29/24 Full Review KEVIN C I remember liking this more the first time I saw this. It's not an awful movie. It has a fantastic cast with James Spader, Marisa Tomei and Keanu Reeves. Reeves plays a serial killer terrorizing Chicago and constantly one step ahead of the detective on his trail, Spader. Reeves is still kind of likeable even as a killer and some of the story is pretty implausible. Overall it's a fun but ridiculous thriller mostly because of the cast. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 11/20/22 Full Review iseult d I was really disappointed in this. Unconvincing performances. The acting did not seem realistic. Plot poor and reminiscent of "The Shining". Unbelievable characters but not in a good way. Why did I waste some hours of my life watching this? Because I thought it might improve as it went along.................did not happen..... Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Halfway through we knew it was going to end without any real explanation…was almost like the writers and filmmakers had the meat of the story down and were too lazy to bring it all together…based on true events or not, shouldve had some conclusions…woulda been better as a doccie I think. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Cannot believe I stuck with this series what a load of rubbish felt sorry for the actors to have starred in this definitely a 3rd rate programme Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member I've heard two stories of how Keanu Reeves ended up in this movie. The first is that a friend forged his signature on the contract to be in this film and he did it rather than get involved in a lengthy legal battle. The second is that Reeves was playing hockey with director Joe Charbanic and verbally agreed to play a small role in the film in order for Charbanic to get the movie funded. The problem was that his role ended up being one of the leads. Regardless of the truth, Reeves was paid union scale for the movie while his co-stars like James Spader were paid at least a million. The actor reached an agreement with Universal Pictures in which he would not disclose what had happened until a year after the film's US release. In return, Universal agreed to downplay Reeves's involvement in marketing (he did no press) and asked the film's producers to give Reeves more profit participation. Since the movie was in first place for two weeks, he ended up making $2 million dollars. A year later, he told the Calgary Sun "I never found the script interesting, but a friend of mine forged my signature on the agreement. I couldn't prove he did and I didn't want to get sued, so I had no other choice but to do the film." So when critics -- like the aforementioned Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, who said, "Short of getting Angela Lansbury or Rodney Dangerfield or Lassie for the part, the miscasting could not be more complete. Keanu is profoundly wrong as a serial killer." -- hated this movie and Keanu was nominated at the Razzie awards for Worst Supporting Actor, he still honored the agreement. FBI Special Agent Joel Campbell (Spader) was too late to save a woman from a serial killer, so he leaves for Chicago, where he deals with migraines and has just one friend, his therapist Dr. Polly Beilman (Marisa Tomei). But when a girl dies in his building and the photos get mailed to him, obviously the killer has followed him. Despite FBI Special Agent Mike Ibby (Ernie Hudson) and Detective Hollis Mackie (Chris Ellis) asking him to come back, he wants to avoid the case. Then, David Allen Griffin (Reeves) sends him a photo of another girl and tells him that if he doesn't save her in nine hours, she'll die. He keeps repeating this game with the detective, telling him that he considers him a good friend. And when he takes Beilman, he really gets to Campbell. At least it has "Roads" by Portishead on the soundtrack. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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