Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Cillian Murphy | ... | Neil | |
Lucy Liu | ... | Violet | |
Jason Sudeikis | ... | Jonathan | |
Michael Panes | ... | Lucien | |
Callie Thorne | ... | Marcia | |
Michael Yurchak | ... | Buddy | |
Heather Burns | ... | Denise | |
Mark Harelik | ... | Detective Barloe | |
Ali Reza | ... | Detective Lowenstein | |
Josh Pais | ... | Andy | |
Brett Gelman | ... | Glenn | |
Lonny Ross | ... | Eager Customer | |
Paul Scheer | ... | Annoying Customer | |
Richard Waddingham | ... | Dennis - Bald Giant | |
J.T. O'Connor | ... | Bald Creep |
Neil, a self proclaimed film geek and owner of Gumshoe video, has always been content to live vicariously through his favorite films noir. But when he meets Violet, a real-life femme fatale, his mundane world gets turned upside down and the line between reality and the movies quickly begins to blur. Will Neil step up and embrace a life full of adventure or retreat back to his comfortable couch? Written by Anonymous
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