Watching the Detectives

This is an original movie with some amazingly funny and surprising moments, some preposterously bad acting and action, and a premise and resolution that really strains the imagination. Plus some very very good lines. It's a movie that plays, rather joyously, at 'being dumb' (Lucy Liu's nipple pops out of her dress and remains there for a whole scene) but creates hysterical situations and carries them off thru the sheer pleasure of Murphy's enthusiasm. Liu's athleticism is on subtle display and it is pretty amazing. It also has two of the best rock and roll moments I've ever seen in films; one, a great indie band in a club running thru the heart riff of a unique song and two, a highly produced backyard karaoke performance that perfectly resolves the needs of the film's moment. The ending is kind of forced but to come up with a real resolution of this story would take a writer of true genius. Summary: not so good, but you can't find this many laughs of this quality very easily. A must-see for a totally non-serious I-don't-know-what-to-do-today day.

"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 goes to show when you're highly attractive people are alot more willing to put up with your bs and shortcomings. Cilian Murphy looks dashing as ever with his Irish boyish good looks and Lucy Liu is sexy hot as always. Murphy plays a video rental owner who's obsessed with movies and Liu plays a wild mysterious cutie who's out looking for some mischief. They cross paths and.. you get this movie. It's worth at least a watch and you'll see why it went straight to dvd. No disrespect to all the actors involved but the script really is nothing to write home about. Average dork with ocd tendencies meet his pixie dream girl.

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.

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.