the Watcher

A 2000 movie, directed by Joe Charbanic. Starring James Spader, Keanu Reeves, Marisa Tomei and others.

A serial killer thriller! Whee! Detective Joel Campbell (Spader) moves into another town after losing his health and all hope in finding David Griffin (Reeves), a serial killer who was practically drained him emotionally. He also starts talking with a psychiatrist (Tomei). But soon enough, he starts receiving photographs of women in mail... and a phone call from Griffin that he is going to kill the woman in photo. Campbell once again starts hunting the killer...

...and the end of the movie won't surprise anyone. There are more knots in the story than this, of course...

One thing to note: I don't love serial killer movies or thrillers in general - because the plots are often the same ("killer kills people and keeps the hunters running, until he makes a fatal mistake and *bang*") and they have low re-viewing value. I liked this movie for the first viewing, though. I think I will put the DVD (not many extras) up for auction one day, though.

Yet, the movie was pretty thrilling. Exciting investigations, surprises in the dark, talks with psychopaths, car chases, explosions... Pretty good movie from a rookie director, too. Also worth noting that Reeves does the killer's role very well. (But his hand-waving in the beginning of the movie, with Rob Zombie's "Dragula" playing on the background, sort of diverted my thoughts to a better movie from previous year... =)

All in all, nice movie, but not really worth seeing the second time unless you're really bored. A suggestion: Rent or see in theaters - Don't buy, unless you really like this sort of movies.

The origin of the beings known as the Watchers began millions and millions of years ago. A group of highly advanced beings on a distant planet gained the ability to convert themselves into pure energy. This made these beings immensely powerful as well as nearly immortal. This race decided to use their new powers to explore the universe, as they could do so now unaided by machines.

During their travels, a group of these beings visited a planet inhabited by a group of intelligent reptile-like men. After exploring the society and talking to members of this race, the visitors decided that they could help this primative race by giving them a leg up technologically. The explorers taught their hosts about atomic energy, believing with this type of knowledge, that the society would soon advance and become enlightened. The visitors left soon after and continued to explore.

Years later, the explorers returned to the planet of the reptile men to discover that it lay in ruins, the result of a terrible war. One of the survivors lashed out at the visitors, accusing them of being at fault for having given them technology and power beyond them, for the knowledge of atomic energy had been used for weapons, not for advancing the society.

This episode changed the entire race. The explorers gathered and vowed as one to never interfere in the affairs of other races again. Instead, the members of this race decided to act as observers to what happens in the universe recording all that they see. They scattered across the whole of the galaxy and became known to those who encountered them as the Watchers.

The Watcher for Earth is Uatu. He has come into contact with a number of the heroic beings of the Earth over the years. He has even broken his vow on at least one occasion, helping Reed Richards in stopping Galactus from devouring the Earth.

The Watchers appear as giant humans with large bald heads. They appear to have a penchant for togas and long capes. The Watcher of Earth resides on the Blue Area of the moon.