The Watcher (2000)
20th May 2001
Joel Campbell is a former Los Angeles FBI agent who is still deeply traumatised by the death of his lover at the hands of a serial killer he'd been hunting for years. Completely washed up he spends his days on tranquillisers and poring his heart out to a psychiatrist. The police never did manager to identify the killer and the murders soon stopped when Campbell left Los Angeles. However, the killer has managed to track Campbell to Chicago and wants to re-start his deadly cat and mouse games.
This time, to make life easier for Campbell to, the killer starts sending Campbell photographs of his intended victims and then gives him a day to locate them before they're murdered. Determined more than ever to finally catch him, Campbell rises to his challenge and sets about locating the women in the pictures before it's too late.
The picture is bright and colourful with some marvellous detail and colour tones and an above average bit-rate throughout the film. With the majority of the action taking place either at night or in dark location the richness of the colours and lack of outlining is quite remarkable. Again, the sound is quite good with some excellent ambient sound effects and a fair amount of activity for the sub-woofer. However, at times, the dialogue could become quite inaudible. I put this down to the incessant and incoherent mumblings from James Spader. I actually had to keep scanning the film back a few seconds to work out what he'd just said.
The extras are reasonable, although the Production Notes and Highlights are only textual and the menu is static, although scored. It's rounded off by the Theatrical Trailer and some unexciting Desktop Wallpaper and Screensavers on the DVD-ROM.
With Keanu Reeves playing a goodie in his previous films I thought that this film would be interesting to see him in a more sinister role. However, I couldn't take him seriously and I kept waiting for him to spurt some stupid line from Bill and Ted. Is this man incapable of changing his accent? This is a rather sub-standard thriller will some mediocre acting, but if you're a fan of Keanu Reeves then you may enjoy his role reversal. However, if you're expecting it to be something like The Matrix then you'll be sadly disappointed.
- Production Notes
- Theatrical Trailer
- Cast and Filmmakers Biographies and Highlights
- DVD-ROM Enhanced
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