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Eye of the Beholder
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Ashley Judd, Ewan McGregor, k.d. lang |
| MPAA Rated: |
R |
| Released By: |
Destination
Films |
| Kiddie Movie: |
No way.
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| Date Movie: |
She might get a little scared, or might thing
you're a stalker.
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| Gratuitous Sex: |
There's some.
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| Gratuitous
Violence: |
Some quality
kills. |
| Action: |
Not to much on the action side. |
| Laughs: |
Only at things that didn't make sense.
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| Memorable
Scene: |
Ashley Judd (Joanna) stabbing a dude. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
None. |
| Directed By: |
Stephen Elliott |
| Produced By: |
Nicolas Clermont,
Tony Smith |
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Eye of the Beholder
A Movie Review |
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There are many ways to go for realism
in a film. Sometimes you try to get shootings to look real.
Sometimes you try to get acting to seem real. And sometimes
you try to get scenery to look real. Now this might not make
sense to anyone who hasn't seen a Chicago police car, but I
just had to chuckle as I was watching "Eye of the Beholder"
when The Eye (yea, no name really, just "The Eye") (Ewan
McGregor) and Joanna (Ashley Judd) ended up in Chicago.
Other than the fact that there aren't many cobblestone
streets, who told the filmmakers that the police cars had
red stripes on them? I saw the Chicago rollers and there
they were, painted in red instead of the blue that every
person who has seen any other movie with Chicago coppers,
from a film like "The Blues Brothers" to "The Fugitive,"
would know. It was at this point that "Eye of the Beholder"
just took a downturn from "Ehh" to "wait for cable."
So, in "Eye of the Beholder" you have The Eye, a spy dude
with a couple of screws loose because he lost his daughter
who is, well, spying, on Joanna and her latest conquest.
She's not playing with a full deck either as she sort of has
the black widow thing going. You know, using men for their
love (and money) and then killing them. Well, after seeing
Joanna and hearing voices from his lost daughter, The Eye
basically bails on his spy career and turns into a stalker,
trailing Joanna across the continental United States and
ending up in Alaska. We get to see The Eye using his
high-tech spy things to catch her words, her actions, her
falling in love, and her finally seeming to have a happy
life with a blind dude until The Eye messes that up. But he
thinks that he is meant for her, she doesn't really know him
until it's too late, and, well, the movie doesn't have a
happy ending except to have you going "That's it?" At least
that's what the lady in back of me said as the credits
started to roll.
There were lots of problems with "Eye of the Beholder"
and none of them had to do with the acting of McGregor nor
Judd. McGregor is in a roll right after the Star Wars flick,
maybe so he doesn't fall into the "Mark Hamill Syndrome."
He's a good enough actor, playing the messed in the head spy
who can't help but try to help Joanna, but the role is stuck
in a story that really ends up making little sense. Ashley
Judd, still one of my favoritist actresses lately, is great
as the disturbed man-killer, really just looking for someone
to love her and not see her for what she is, and does her
role well. But the problem comes in the story, especially on
the The Eye side. Yea, he's great at being a detective, but
he's a little, as my mom might nicely say, loony. His
co-workers know this, but they don't do anything except
maybe enable him. And when he finally snaps, well, even with
all the spy gear and the spy agency he works for, well, they
can't find him, which I find odd because he always wears the
dingy red coat and looks disheveled. At first he seemed like
a great spy, but by the end he just made me laugh,
especially with his shrine of snow-globes, and his final
inability to tell Joanna just who he is.
So, McGregor was good and Ashley, I'm happy to say, is a
great actress with a great body and isn't afraid to show it.
But the rest of the movie, well, it was good until you
realize that The Eye is basically a stalker with cool spy
shit.
So, as I checked my watch during the movie I was deciding
to give "Eye of the Beholder" 2 ½ stars, then came the
Chicago roller's blunder and I just can't handle that. At
least get the color right. As much as McGregor was good, as
much as Judd was good (and she got naked too), I just
couldn't get over the red coloring on the Chicago cop cars
and the story just seemed really dumb after that. I really
hate giving this rating for an Ashley Judd movie, but it's 1
½ stars for "Eye of the Beholder." It was a movie with
a lot, and I mean a lot of potential, but at least give me a
little bit of realism, or at least find out what color the
cop cars are.
That's it for this one. I'm The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!!
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