The Watcher (US Dir-Joe Charbanic) Following the worldwide success of The Matrix, star Keanu Reeves made a couple of films where he took on the role of a villian. The first of these films was Sam Raimis underrated Supernatural Thriller The Gift & the second was The Watcher, a Cat & Mouse Crime Thriller that IMO is rather underrated too, despite being nothing special. Oddly enough Keanu has publicly claimed that he did NOT sign to star in The Watcher, but rather was the victim of signature forgery by a friend. Keanu admirably decided to appear in the film anyway rather than drag the situation out into the courts. It is not clear whether Keanu was originally groomed for the heroic of the villianous role but despite Keanus string of heroic roles prior to this film, he had played Not So Nice characters before in films including Brotherhood Of Justice, Much Ado About Nothing & My Own Private Idaho. He had not played a true Psychopath however until he appeared in The Watcher & IMO Keanu pulls it off well! I have always considered Keanu one of the most underrated actors of his generation. Sure he is not the greatest actor on Earth & yes he has delivered some poor performances but he is certianly not deserving of all the criticism he recieves! Keanu has delivered several great performances in his career with films such as Rivers Edge, Permenant Record, My Own Private Idaho, Speed, Thumbsucker, Street Kings, The Lake House, The Gift & A Scanner Darkly instantly coming to mind. His performance in The Watcher may not be as showy but its a damn good effort in a rather underwritten role. Keanu plays a serial killer who has a mutual obsession with the FBI agent who he drove damn near insane while on his trail! The burnt out FBI agent is played brilliantly by James Spader who keeps the viewer gripped as he regains his obsessive passion for his work & renews his relentless hunt for Reeves seductive & sadistic strangler. Keanu is quite the charasmatic psycho as he stalks & seduces his victims, while taunting & further tormenting Spader with phone calls & pictures of his intended victims. The film recalls the classic Dirty Harry in how Harry would persue Scorpio who in turn would taunt his persuer. Now i am not for one minute going to claim that The Watcher has anything near the brilliance of Dirty Harry but as far as Cat & Mouse thrills go, this is well above average! Director Joe Charbanic employs heavy use of MTV style visuals as well as a cool, Trip-Hop soundtrack( featuring the classic Sneaker Pimps song 6 Underground). At the time of the films release critics likely frowned upon this style of film making, as they did with earlier films such as Stigmata & The Rage:Carrie 2 which also utilised the flashy visuals to IMO brilliant effect. The Watcher is no classic but IMO its a far better Crime Thriller than its contemporaries The Bone Collector & The Cell. I recommend The Watcher to fans of Kiss The Girls, Seven, Face/Off & Copycat, all superior films admitadly. Good performances, great action sequences & perfect marriage of visuals & soundtrack.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 08:01:05 +0000
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