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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Watcher, The

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Darcy Meyers (story)
David Elliot (also story)
Clay Ayers
Directed by: Joe Charbanic
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 8, 2000
DVD: February 20, 2001
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for violence and language.
Starring Ernie Hudson, Keanu Reeves, James Spader, and Marisa Tomei
A former FBI agent (Spader) tracking a serial killer (Reeves) gives up solving the crimes after 8 years. The agent moves to another city, but the killer finds him and starts sending photographs of new victims -- one of which is (Tomei), the agent's psychiatrist.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TNT RoughCut J. Rentilly
What distinguishes The Watcher from all the films it consciously or unconsciously emulates is the intermittently witty, offbeat writing of debuting screenwriter David Elliot.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The actors cannot be faulted. They bring more to the story than it really deserves.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
This thriller largely succeeds in putting quotation marks around its use of genre conventions, mixing subtlety and overkill to create a pensive mood that transcends the plot.
Read Full Review >USA Today Andy Seiler
It's still the same sick story. Even the small touches seem stale.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Has its compelling moments, and its playfully inventive ones, too.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Reeves is a stiff dancer and he delivers his lines in a full leather jacket monotone.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark
The satisfaction of watching it essentially boils down to seeing whether or not Reeves can pull it off.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Leaves me wanting to watch Tomei and company in something more worthy of their abilities.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
If Reeves weren't onboard this picture would have gone straight to video.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Sluggish and preposterous, full of violence and cliches.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
Once the terror ends and the credits roll, we finally get to the best part: a merciful escape.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
A hodgepodge of half-baked visual styles can't disguise the fact that this dismal thriller is all situation and no story.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
A story about unmotivated characters trapped in an ill-conceived plot.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's lively but fails to disguise the fact that his (Charbanic) script is a dud and his career in videos has taught him little about the art of narrative storytelling.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The picture's real interest lies in detailing the villain's sadistic crimes, though, and this is rarely fun or edifying to watch.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
A crass, mechanical attempt at a thriller that should have gone straight to video.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The movie is paint-by-numbers with several numbers skipped.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Neither acutely suspenseful nor particularly thrilling but instead mainly numbing.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
Emerges as a formulaic thriller that plays more like direct-to-video fare than a megaplex-worthy feature.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams
It stinks pretty bad, but not so bad you'd go out of your way to avoid it.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly F. X. Feeney
Fails to fulfill.
Village Voice Mark Holcomb
Sidesteps any juicy subtext in favor of routine chase-movie thrills.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Andy Klein
An uninspired, standard-issue mimeo whose only distinguishing feature is a reversal in its casting.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
By the end of The Watcher you'll need your own prescription.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.2 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
R. L. gave it a9:
An extremely entertaining cat&mouse thriller that will have you guessing at every turn.
Felix C. gave it a1:
Too easy to predict. Keanu Reaves cannot play a bad guy, he doesn't scare me.
Rod G. gave it a6:
This movie was okay. It got 28 reviews from critics. Critics are like weathermen. They're almost always wrong.
Tobi gave it a2:
Holy crap this is one of the most predictable, boring and dumb movies i've ever seen.
armando s. gave it a6:
This was actually better then most critics rated it- Keanu Reeves does better playing a bad guy -his best role is in THE GIFT. Of course the plot is not very believable, but that is true for most thrillers-pretty enjoyable if you turn off your brain.
ty t gave it a10:
It put me into some kind of sadisticaly darkened state of entrancement. I couldn't get enough!
Mehdi B. gave it a 10:
I found it excellent.
