Customer Reviews

Cruel and Unusual

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a Canadian film with an alternative title "Watchtower," starring Tom Berenger, who is best known as a tough senior soldier in Oliver Stone's "Platoon." But that film about the Vietnam War, which gave him an Oscar nomination, was made years ago.

And this film came, starring Tom Berenger as a mystrious stranger, who happens to come to a small seaside town in Oregon (actually, hte film is shot in British Columbia). Claiming himself as a teacher at university, he says he is here to write a book. Getting a job at an old watchtower by the sea, he is befriended with the local sister and brother Kate and Mike. As Kate, owner of a fishing boat gets closer to him, Mike, living without purpose, finds a kind of father figure in him. But this guy, coming from nowhere, seems to have some secrets behind his face.

Sounds interesting? Maybe. But the film uses the idea so awfully that you keep on pushing a fast-foward button to the end. First of all, don't expect any suspense. There is none. The "secrets" are revealed in the first 10 minutes, and you know the face of the serial killer from the first. But that would not be damaging the film if it holds some dramatic tension between this stranger in town and those sister-brother characters, in order to develop the initial idea about the bond between this murderer and the kid, or his sister. No. The film is all about ordinary love scenes with cheesy dialogues and self-indulgent, extended guitar play as its soundtrack.

I don't tell you anything about the ending because it is simply terrible. The "clues" leading to the finale are given in the most awkward fashion which makes you literally gasp. Tom Berenger's acting might gain some praise from fans, but I wasn't impressed at all, probably because the characters surrounding him are so awfully drawn that there's no way to compare him with the others. At least, he deserves much better material. Dull at its best.

The only word to describe this movie is strange. Also, it drags in so many places that you want to fast-forward to the end which is completely anti-climactic and extremely far-fetched.

The one and only bright spot in this film is the performance by the villain. He is wonderful in his part, and you get the idea that his talents are being wasted by making this turkey. At times, his acting talents are amazing. The others in the film are mediocre at best. There are better ways to spend a couple of hours.

Am I the ONLY person that really liked and enjoyed this movie?

I thought it to be very un-usual in many ways, including the ending which was of course reminiscent of a fairly recent thriller, but completely unexpected here.

British Columbia with its scenic beauty, would alone be worth the price of admission. The feeling of "quietness" in the overall film, added to the build up of mystery and "what and when" was coming next. No insulting noise, visual effects or in-appropriate profanity. Everything was done appropriately, and all was a treat and Tom was convincing, as was the brother of the very savvy fisherwoman.

I am ordering this movie and this will be the third movie I have ordered in 10 years. I want it for my collection. I have 10.

Additionally, I will keep an eye out for the director of this film as I wish to see ALL his others!

If you are a woman, who loves quiet, compelling mystery with only a few characters, and good pauses, intimate camera shots, showing emotion with silence, and great capturing of emotional and thinking eyes, "get this movie." It leaves the imagination, intriqued.

The only thing cruel about this movie is despite it's flaws I watched the entire thing hoping it would get better, and the most unusual is how much it resembles a bad parody of a Stephen King story.

Starting off with Tom Berenger's character leaving a bloody trail of bodies, his serial killer character murders a man on the side of the road and assuming the man's identity, goes to a small Maine town to work in a lighthouse. Almost immediately he picks two people to be his next victims - a brother and sister, Mike and Kate O'Connor. What happens next is supposed to be scary, I suppose, but if you're going to insist on watching this, I suggest you have something else to do at the same time- like sewing or a craft project, so you won't be completely bored.

There's more plot holes in this film then I could begin to count. For instance, the killer has sex with his victims before he kills them and even left tons of hair at another scene. Yet, when a mangled body turns up everyone shrugs and says " That must be our killer". Come on, haven't the writers ever heard of DNA? Also, the killer steals a man's identity and just comes into a small town and is accepted? Obviously, the writers have never lived in a small town before. People in small towns are highly suspicious of outsiders, and I can not believe they would trust the word of a stranger over the word of one of their own.

The only reason this movie gets two stars instead of one is Tom Berenger himself. He's a good actor and he plays a great psychopath. If he weren't in it, this would be a one star dud for sure.

So if you want a Tom Berenger movie, get Platoon, or Sniper and if you want a good story about a psycho killer in a small Maine town, get Dark Half.

In many ways this is an interesting movie. It explores the thinking and doings of a serial killer and allows for most of it's running time to go deeply into what makes him tick. In that approach lies also it's flaws. It's simply to slow. A better director whould have kept it flowing at a more reasonable pace and maybe even added some spice to many scenes, which seem at best half-complete. Tom Berenger is very good as the killer and, in my opinion, deserves better projects in the near future. The rest of the cast don't come off well.

This movie was VERY ENTERTAINING and the only thing really wrong with this movie was the title which fits a horror movie rather than a suspense theme. It seems that most of the
previous reviewers focused on the wrong thing. Yes, the movie reveals the multi-faceted sides of Tom Berengers tormented character and the reasons that created his twisted personality. What was really interesting was the way Berenger eased his way into the confidence of others. He was likeable, witty and had a colorful flair which people liked and just took for granted that he was an interesting guy to be around, bringing up the QUESTION: How often do we drop our guard when dealing with relative strangers who could be potentially dangerous? The supporting actors did a good job and I don't really understand the harse criticism. My critcisms are minor at best: The pretty young tom boy sister working single handedly as a professional fisherman without a crew was a bit extreme and unrealistic since fishing in the Pacific is one of the harshest and most dangerous professions on the planet. The young brother was quick to defend himself in a local bar when harassed by three local punks, knocking one antagonist down with a single punch, but when Tom Berenger began slapping him around he totally wimped out. If it happened to me I would have gotten Berenger back tenfold since I have the kind of personality that the brother showed in the bar rather than passively taking abuse without fighting back. Lastly, the ending could have been detailed better but we got the picture regardless. All in all the movie is well worth watching.

Maybe the most important and even discretely suggested message in the film be the harsh childhood of the three principal personages along the film. Every one of them suffered the rigors of a merciless and cruel father before the quiet presence of the mother. One of them opted by being a serial killer to vindicate his fears and somehow to redeem anybody who pretended to be happy: you will see the angels very soon. This bloody attitude reveals a classic answer, a scream in the darkness inside his phantom world. The pleasure and the sublime act of love seems to be in him just a special sparkling ignition to put in action the ancestral codes of repressed anger and restrained fury. The rest of the world will have to pay his internal frustrations: so simple like that.
In the other hand we have to Mike a good for nothing guy, an extremely frightened man who seems to be a sleepwalker in the life without will, personality and responsibility. His sister developed a stronger character and somehow she has to carry that awful weight with him.
In this state of things this serial killer superbly played by Tom Berenger - a very neglected actor by Hollywood- makes an interesting role of this disturbed mind murderer, who will appear in the isolated Oregon Valley appearing to change seriously the bitter situation of both brothers.
The idea was terrific and my only claim was precisely not emphasize in this sense. However the film gets its purpose and lets us with an open end of mystery and complicity.
Ravishing direction.

From begining to end I really felt like this film could have been shot on an old hi-8 cam. Tom Berenger wasnt bad, but neither was he great.. and the rest of the supporting cast felt like half dead fish floundering onscreen for the duration of the film.. in point of fact I dont really think it was their fault..

The script, or what their was of it was slow and meandering and never really did have much of a point. Even when Tom's character did some dispicable act, you neither felt shocked nor disgusted or disturbed, but instead it all seemed forced as if the writer could find no other way for the story to progress.

Now on to the music, it had those cliche guitar riffs you would catch in a lot of the late 80s early 90s thriller type films, which would be fine.. if this film hadn't been made in 2001.

The only real good thing I can say about this movie is that eventually it ends.

Over the years, Tom Berenger has shown diversity in his projects, including such films as "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," "Platoon," "Rustler's Rhapsody," and "The Substitute." However, in this muddled Canadian venture, Tom works hard to make the film work. While he is convincing in his role as serial killer Eddie, the rest of the cast and the plodding direction/screenplay make all his efforts pointless. Tygh Runyan as Mike is pitifully miscast and doesn't do anything to really make you feel for his character; Rachel Hayward does a little better, but we never really know what makes her tick and the ending is abysmally flat. There's little suspense, and that rests mainly on director's lap; moody scenes of the lighthouse and the bay can't compensate. Could have been and should have been better.

This movie has a VERY cheesy and cliched dialog. The script is bad. The acting is bad. The best parts of this not-so-good movie were the nice camera shots of the landscapes and lighthouse. However, I'm not sure that the lighthouse they stayed in is actually located in Oregon. Am I wrong about that?