A detective tracking a serial killer gives up all hope of solving the crimes and moves to another city. After he's settled in to his new home, the old acquaintance makes himself known. The serial killer has resurrected and continues to send him pictures of his next victim.......The Watcher is more famous for exploiting Keanu Reeves and his star power, and he's apparently disowned the film whenever he's asked about it, but underneath all it's notoriety, there's a decent serial killer film hidden in there.Granted, these dark serial killer films were everywhere after the advent of Se7en, and this, and maybe Along Came A Spider, spelled the death knell do this sub genre, so maybe if this film was made in the mod nineties, it would've been more of a success in my humble opinion.So we have James Spader struggling to come to terms with the killers obsession with him, and the fact that in less than ten years he will lose his hair and put on a ton of weight. And Marisa Tomei co-stars as the person who has to listen to him.So far, so mundane, so thank heavens for Reeves, who honestly puts in an amazing performance as Griffin, the serial killer obsessed with perfecting his art by studying his victims for weeks.It's really against type for him, but this makes his character more intense, because he's literally so nice in every one of his previous films. He really is great as the antagonist.Other than that, it ticks all the boxes in a cat and mouse thriller, the killer is always one step ahead of Spader, and Spader gets that little more frustrated, maybe he is beginning to feel some psychotic tendencies.There is nothing new to offer in the thriller genre, but one film the film does is show that Reeves can put in a decent performance, especially when he plays against type.

The Watcher (2000): Dir: Joe Charloanic / Cast: Keanu Reeves, James Spader, Marisa Tomei, Ernie Hudson, Chris Ellis: Horror misfire about an evil presence prevailing over innocent victims. James Spader plays a cop who is haunted by the memory of his girlfriend's burning death. Analyzing the situation he finds her tied to a chair. He removes the tape from her mouth then pursues the suspect. While she burns to death I got to wondering why he didn't untie her while the going was good? He moves away and seeks therapy from Marisa Tomei whom we can guess will be his next rescue mission. Keanu Reeves is sighted as the killer so that viewers can avoid any surprises. He sends photos of his victims to Spader and allows him until nine-o-clock to locate them. One girl has her picture posted everywhere yet nobody notices her even when she walks amongst them. Lackluster directing by Joe Charloanic with drab production. Reeves is miscast and downright laughable as the villain. He is one of the most boring villains ever conjured up for a film. Spader is just as bad in a cardboard role of hero. Tomei spends her biggest scenes bound to a chair in a lame reference to the film's opening. Ernie Hudson also appears as well as Chris Ellis as a detective whose first clue should have been to find a better script than this. An exercise in exploitation and stupidity at its worst. Score: 1 / 10

The inevitable influence of MTV and Music Videos on Mainstream Movies is glaringly evident in this hyper-kinetic Serial Killer Film that is nothing if an attempt to stimulate the synapses with razzle-dazzle beyond belief.A Casting reversal is haunting as things unfold in this almost average presentation of pomp and circumstance that is inconsistent and at times, especially in the end, incoherent. Spader would have been a better choice as the charming Serial Killer and Reeves would have been more at home with his limited Acting chops as the Detective.It is not bad but nothing memorable. How many of those dated Music Videos from MTV's Golden Age are lingering in the Mind. So here it is, a Video influenced Movie with little depth of field, bright and shiny, Whizzy and Bangy, images separating and splintering, with light trails everywhere. But in the end it just goes Poof, gone like a smoke ring.

Back when this movie was released, I read someone who wrote this : "If my cat ate bad dinner, then vomited it, her vomit would be better than The Watcher" ! Well, when I had the opportunity to watch it, I knew that it isn't that ugly after all.It's the fashion at the moment : the thrilling hunt for that smart, energetic, and completely crazy serial killer. After 9 years of it, (The Silence of the Lambs) was still swaying. Most of its following had nothing more than the dark atmosphere and the action. However this time, and a la the original, the relationship between the officer and the criminal produces a meaning. The movie points out sadly to the fact that people became too many and too busy to look to each others, so love became hard to find, consequently life became out of sense. It's distinct to have a movie of that kind while being not "out of sense" itself.I hated slight points like that FBI agent who dislikes the returning James Spader. That line didn't affect anything later, so why to make it in the first place ?! Then, the coincidence of being, out of all places, in the same mall which one of the victims works at. But, whatever. That wasn't the problem. The problems though were else where.Let's declare the always concealed, or twisted, or not spoken about much truth : Keanu Reeves doesn't know how to act. He acted in one movie, ironically one of his first, (Speed – 1994). Strangely later, and in a precedent, he turned into worse actor, and worse, and worse as he aged !Supposedly Reeves acts as the evil nuts while being terrifyingly frozen. Ultimately he just did nothing but reading his lines with dead puffed up face, managing to be terrifyingly frozen, yet as an actor ! At one point I said to myself "he doesn't have to slaughter the girls. All what he has to do is acting, or dancing, for them a little !". I deem the scene of his crazy dancing as one of the silliest images ever captured on film at all. No kidding ! Then, the director : Joe Charbanic. I don't know the guy, but according to the way he handled everything I believe he is, or has a passion to be, one of the masters of the V movies' crap. Nothing was tense about the movie. At the first phone call between the lead and its antagonist, see how he films Reeves from 2 angles with still cadres and dull cutting. The acting assures that he doesn't know a lot about acting. And the damn special effect, which he used while the actors' running, made them like idiots chasing each other in a comic silent movie from the 1920s. I couldn't stop laughing in front of that. Here's the cat's vomit. Truly, pedantry is evil !Spader did it good. But he doesn't have the charismatic glow. Despite the shortness and the usualness of her role, Marisa Tomei could be memorable due to her so expressive tearful eyes. Some of the soundtrack's rock songs did soothe the atmosphere or stir it up. I loved the one played during the search for a victim. Its lyrics harmonized with the somewhat deep sad core, embodying – even swiftly – the movie's case of desolate cities, and state, we live. As a script it's nice. It has thrill and good meaning to it, and that's rare if you ask me. As a movie it is not that nice. Wanna know why, then ask yourself why our dear director had to picture everything Reeves sees in the psychological doctor's clinic like it's an electronic image seen from The Terminator's point of view ?! Albeit Reeves as a robot sucks too ! I think that moment summarizes the answer to my question and the whole movie.As you see, (The Watcher) has 2 killers, not one !