Watching the Detectives

This movie had a lot of hilarious moments and, thank god, unique funny characters that weren't the same old generic personalities. This film is about being spontaneous, creative and adventurous every day, rather than the far more boring one-dimensional act of watching others (ie. staring at a TV). It's about the sort of fun you had as a kid - relying on your imagination rather than some bad TV writer. You won't get the same predictable humour (well except for a few scenes like the one where they sit around and guess where the tape is at, it was so obvious you can see it coming a mile away), the characters don't follow any formulaic character arcs or other rubbish, which adds to the realism. The ending is a bit of a let down considering the rest of the film is so brilliant. A film for outside-the-box minds.

I'm on a Cillian kick lately, so I tried this little number out. Though it's as cute as it can be for a romcom, it's got quite a few rough spots. I'd say editing, some of the writing, maybe, er, the direction now and then. The married couple got on my nerves sometimes, yet I really enjoyed the banter between Michael Panes and Jason Sudeikis. Still, though I find it very surprising that Cillian Murphy would do a film of this sort (a chatty, slapsticky, quirky American comedy), given his resume, he brings something to it that would have been missing otherwise. Though his role of Neil is primarily reactionary (to Lucy Liu's nonstop pranks), there were some moments of his own that had me in stitches (pretending to be a rockstar smoking a joint, for instance!) Lucy Liu (am I spelling it right, I hope?) is riotous as Violet, the girl who immediately draws Neil, a film dork who owns a video store that specializes in rare, cult and classic movies that aren't avail on DVD, into her world of bor-ophobia and endless mischief. Almost every scene holds a surprise. If you don't laugh during the scene where the 2 noirish cops question Neil in his office, you may have the wrong sense of humour for the whole thing. After a while, though, the pranks begin to feel a bit forced, and the "robbery" towards the ending left me confused as to what was fake and what wasn't. It's definitely not Cillian's best film, but that's not to say it isn't a cute role for him or that he didn't play it well. All in all, it's a rather adorable change for him after all the dark roles. There are some awesome songs in the film too. My favorite personally is the Band Of Horses song during Neil's meltdown while he's playing baseball. Worth a look.

"Watching the Detectives" is a movie for movie watchers who like to sit around watching movies about people who sit around watching movies. Neil (Cillian Murphy) is such a person. He owns a small video store specializing in B-movies and other hard to find titles complete with a couch to just sit on and watch movies. But life gets in the way. Intrigued by a cute girl who walks into his store and frustrated by the big video chain stores opening down the street, he follows her and ends up doing stuff. Unfortunately for Neil, things that Violet (Lucy Liu) usually gets into are illegal by nature. But fortunately for Neil, he's seen characters like Violet in his movies, and now he's given a chance to live them out. I liked the character of Neil a lot. I liked the fact that he appreciated the comfort of his couch. He's cute and funny, and he would be smart if girls and life didn't get in the way. But I like Cillian Muprhy even more than I like Neil. He's got charisma and an unbelievably versatile talent that he can play just an ordinary guy. I didn't know that he could play ordinary with such a great comedic touch. "Watching the Detectives" is a comedy for movie watchers - meaning you need to have seen classics like "Citizen Kane" and "Thelma & Louise" since this movie has a knack for giving away their endings. They probably also do it for a number of B-movies, but just ones that you likely haven't heard of. I would have appreciated a darker ending, but I still thoroughly enjoyed watching "Watching the Detectives".

This movie felt fresh, like a newly opened bag of jelly beans after years of eating chocolate covered almonds. Don't get me wrong, I love chocolate covered almonds. And there isn't even anything highly original about jelly beans or this movie, just a nice change, fruity and delicious! Lucy Liu and Cillian Murphy have fabulous chemistry, they're adorable and sexy. They're both very believable in these quirky roles. I could watch them both all day, and in fact I watched the movie a second time, despite the slightly disappointing ending. Maybe there was a point to the lack of ending, as in: just get out there and live, have fun, and eat some jelly beans!

The only reason I gave it a 6/10 is because Cillian Murphy is always a good performer.He is the only one to watch in this movie. But for an actor of his range, it is still disappointing. I thought that it could be a different type of romantic comedy,- it started interestingly enough- but after you got the point of this girl (Lucy Liu) being "nuts", it is going nowhere. I smiled, maybe, once.The rest of the time I just waited for something to happen. Lucy Liu is not charming enough in this kind of pranks, because she is not a teenager, or sweet, and she is not convincing. I really like her, but she was better in action movies, or playing a more serious character. I didn't find a great chemistry between them. I think that the director and the stars tried to make it work because a story about this weird guy who lives a boring life unlike in the movies he watches (big surprise here...), falling for this 'border-line con'/ grasshopper,- sounded like an appealing and funny idea of a movie - but it didn't work. not for me, anyway.I also have a feeling that this kind of plot was done before, and it worked better.

While the premise of the movie was most attractive to me: "A film noir buff has his life turned on end by a femme fatale with a big adventure in mind," and the casting of Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu quite inspired, the execution was pretty ho-hum, and it's no wonder this movie went straight to video. Despite the premise, this movie's more of a twisted rom-com, in which Liu somewhat sadistically teases Murphy on by constantly lying to him about everything, and Murphy masochistically keeps going along like a puppy who's been whipped and likes it. It's cute... for a little while, and then you start wondering what kind of a fetishistic sex life they would have as a couple. There are a few weak tribute scenes to the film-noir genre, but the only truly geeky (and amusing) scene comes when a group of movie buffs try to guess where and why Liu stopped watching a videotape movie by looking at how much reel has been unspooled. I wish someone would give Lucy Liu a movie in which she's not portrayed as an Asian tigress, no matter how she does look like one.

Watching the Detectives is a loving homage to the screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s, adopting the basic formula of Bringing up Baby, i.e. daffy broad woos uptight dork. The dork is Cillian Murphy's Neil, an esoteric video store owner obsessed with being part of the movie reality he spends so much time the passive viewer of. Along comes Lucy Liu's Violet, a moderately insane woman who doesn't need to watch movies because she is always starring in her own, and is determined to have Neil as her costar. She involves him in a string of situations reminiscent of classic movies, noir and screwball alike, while attempting to help Neil realize she's the best thing that ever happened to him The movie is pleasant, though meandering at times, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The story could have used a little stronger of an underlying plot arc to tie together the comic episodes beyond the basic premise of Liu's pursuit of Neil. This plot arc component is what made Bringing up Baby, It Happened One Night, and other classic screwball comedies so good, the laughs occurring within a tight script. Watching the Detectives' script is funny if a bit flabby, but Lucy Liu and Cillian Murphy deliver inspired performances amidst a talented supporting cast, and are able to make you forget the film's flaws and enjoy yourself. The central message of the film is good one for all of us who spend too much time watching and not enough time making our own movies.

Basically this is a pale shadow of High Fidelity, which was a witty and wonderfully acted film with several truly winning character turns. Watching the Detectives has none of that. The premise of a video store geek swept off his feet by a quirky mystery woman is a good one but is never fully or adequately explored, thanks to a very weak script and the miscasting of the leads, not to mention the lack of any real visual story-telling style. I mean, this film is centered around MOVIES, yet is itself incredibly uncinematic! That's a major failing right there. But the main problem is we simply don't care about the main characters because the script and the actors (Murphy and Liu) fail to make them true or sympathetic in any real way. So the film just becomes a series of episodes involving two people who seem, well, not terribly interesting. Oh, yeah, another thing: For a romantic comedy? It's not funny. And the romance isn't terribly romantic, either. So avoid it. Even at its 90-something minute running time it's just not worth sitting through...

Like the summary says - Watching The Detectives is strange, quirky, cute fluff. Like all of us folks on IMDb (as well as the characters in this movie), we watch too many movies. Too many bad movies. Too many similar movies. Watching The Detectives knows that so it veers off in a different direction and has some fun with the Romantic Comedy formula. It's a cute little movie. Could it have been better? Yes. Could the characters have been developed more? Yes. Could Lucy Liu been any cuter? I think not!! And to think she was almost 40 when she made this movie. Think of Watching The Detectives as a well made Indie film and you'll be pleased. It's already dated as the idea of a small, local video store catering to folks who like all kinds of movies is an idea whose time has unfortunately passed, but that's also part of its charm. Lucy Liu is great. Cillian Murphy is OK (his look is more suited to post apocalyptic movies!!). The supporting cast is good. The music is very good. In fact, the scenes where music is featured were my favorite parts of the movie. Give it a shot if you're looking for something lite and different.

The premise is not original, the acting is good but not exactly to write home about and technically it's not a great accomplishment. But is 'Watching The Detectives' entertaining? Definitely. Lucy Liu fits the role of the play-in-the-field perfectly (her role reminded me of her character in Lucky Number Slevin) and Cillian Murphy really proved to be a surprise in a comedy role. I've only seen his really intense, sometimes scary roles and couldn't believe he was going to be somewhat enjoyable as a light character but I was very wrong. The antics they get in to are fairly original and there even were several laugh-out-loud moments, for instance when the waiter is just a little too comfortable with spraying a glass of water on a woman he doesn't know on the request of a guy he doesn't know. :-). And when Lucy starts talking about her weirdo ex-boyfriends me and my friends were in stitches. The following scenes are quite amusing too, as Cillian gets paranoid over every bald guy he sees. I mentioned some of the more original stuff above but there's also formulaic stuff present. WTD is never intended to be a film we can take something away from, it's harmless escapism that ironically enough deals with escapism a lot of the time :-). The relatively negative connotations concerning movie freaks certainly left a bad taste in my mouth after viewing, after all isn't that the target audience of these small films? I somehow feel they didn't find the right balance between respecting film and commenting on over-obsessive film freaks. Also the fact that they can't differ people who watch sci-fi, anime and stuff from the people who enjoy quality movies (like the mentioned Seventh Seal or Casino). Seems a bit ignorant. In the end, DTW is better than a lot of comedies but it never goes deep, we (us guys) just fall in love with Lucy Liu all over again and that's never a bad way to spend ninety minutes. 7.5/10