Someone to Watch Over Me

Review by L. Shirley for Someone to Watch Over Me
Rating:
This review refers to “Someone To Watch Over Me”(VHS Columbia)…

No matter how often I view this thriller, I still get caught up in the suspense, the thrills and the romance. Director Ridley Scott does an excellent job of pulling us into the lives of the characters, and like in a good Hitchcock flick, has us wanting to warn them of impending danger.

New York City is the setting. On one side of town, in Queens, a party is going on at the modest home of newly promoted Detective, Mike Keegan. It’s a close knit group of cops and their wives having a great time. Meanwhile in uptown Manhattan, another party is going on in a very upscale apartment, attended by the rich and “beautiful people”. One of the guests is the lovely Claire Gregory. Claire is invited to view some artwork on a lower level of the building, and it is there she witnesses the brutal murder of her friend. The murderer spots her and now her very life is in danger.

Keegan has his first assignment…babysit the witness until the perp is hauled in and identified. But Joey Venza, the killer, is ruthless and is not going to let a few cops get in the way of his plans for Miss Gregory. The film provides many heartstopping moments of thrills and suspense as he goes after her. The film is more than just a thriller though, and as the song goes, like ‘lost lambs’, family man Mike and Claire find passion and comfort in each other’s arms. The film becomes a complex but tight story of murder and passion, that will have you immersed from the first frame to the last.

The cast are all excellent. Tom Berenger is Keegan, torn between his family and his feelings for Claire, while still protecting her from harm. The role of Claire, is tailor made for the beautiful Mimi Rogers as she just exudes class. Lorraine Bracco packs a punch(literally) as Keegan’s wife. Jerry Orbach is of course the perfect choice to play “the whip”, Keegan’s superior, John Rubinstein is Claire’s stodgy boyfriend and Andreas Katsulas(the one armed murderer in “The Fugitve”), will scare you out of your wits as Joey Venza, “the perp”.

An excellent soundtrack, that flows right along with the story, will treat you to some haunting Opera music, and 3 different renditions of “Someone To Watch Over Me”, including one by Roberta Flack over the closing credits. The cinematography is also a wonderful plus for this film and includes some great views of the New York Skyline, and one fabulous shot of the WTC, as Berenger and Bracco are lunching in the city.

Five stars for a film that has not lost any of it’s appeal since it’s release in 1987. A great thriller to add to your library. One that will stand up to repeated heartpumping viewings.

Get the popcorn ready and enjoy…..Laurie

Review by for Someone to Watch Over Me
Rating:
Well, here’s some info on the great opera song in the soundtrack….good luck finding the soundtrack!!!”Aria from LA WALLY” aka “Ebben? ne andrò lontana” Composed by Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893) Performed by Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez with the London Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Vladimir Cosma Courtesy by DEG Records, Inc.An opera that hasn’t been staged frequently, possibly because it calls for the heroine Wally and her lover to die on stage in an avalanche. Still, the aria from Act 1 has become one of the most popular in the repertoire, helped by its use in the film Someone to Watch Over Me. Wally has been ordered by her father to marry Gellner, but she is in love with Hagenbach. She resolves to leave home for love rather than be forced into marriage, and this aria is the expression of her feelings.Recordings of the complete opera are available but are few; the aria is the highlight. It has been used before in the movie Crimson Tide, Diva as well as this one; also UK TV ads for Rowenta Powermaster.

Review by absent_minded_prof for Someone to Watch Over Me
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Mimi Rogers plays a young socialite who inadvertently becomes a madman’s target when she is the sole witness to a murder he commits. Tom Berenger is the “someone” who watches over her, the simple Irish-American cop who must stand guard over her, night and day, in her almost supernaturally opulent New York penthouse. Eventually, predictably, but still excitingly, sparks fly between them, and romance ensues. Tom Berenger’s character is married to a woman played by the fiery Lorraine Bracco, who today is one of the (justly) most acclaimed stars of “The Sopranos.” This love triangle tears them all apart, in painfully character-revealing ways. Meanwhile, the plot becomes more complicated when the madman eludes justice and begins stalking Mimi Rogers. She realizes that she had made a huge mistake in trusting Tom Berenger with her life, but she can’t stop being in love with him. He’s in a similar boat, and it rips them both apart even more.Set during the height of late 80′s, post-Reagan era New York, this movie pulls absolutely no punches at all when it comes to portraying class differences. Tom Berenger must function, and keep his sanity, while shuttling back and forth between his working class Queens neighborhood and the playgrounds of the richest group of people, by far, in the entire world. I really felt for Tom Berenger’s character, and his lostness among the rich… There is a moment when his wife tried to regain his interest in her by suggesting that they go to what is, in her eyes, an incredibly swank, ritzy restaurant. She’s fighting hard to keep her husband, pulling out all the stops, doing everything she can think of. You can see in Lorraine Bracco’s eyes, as she suggests it, that it’s the nicest place her character has ever been to, the epitome of hoity-toityness. (By the way — how did Lorraine Bracco do that?!?! She really does communicate important information with her eyes, without even speaking. That what I call acting!) All Tom Berenger’s character can say in reply is the immortal line “The one in… Brooklyn?” as he tries weakly to look enthused. That’s the moment, as far as I’m concerned, when you can see he’s in very, very, VERY real danger of losing his soul. This movie makes you see things through his eyes, and works hard to capture perfectly differences in body language, carriage, diction, eye contact, politeness, etc. between the rich and regular Americans. The art gallery shots do this particularly well.Anyway, this movie really draws you in, as you might guess from this review. I recommend the living daylights out of “Someone to Watch Over Me.” Two thumbs up.

Review by AZ guy for Iron Eagle II
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I liked this movie — the action was solid and the plot good enough but I was disappointed that they killed off Doug Masters. Sure he’s a showoff punk (as we saw in the first movie) but we all grew to like him and root for him as the first movie progressed, and I think it was a real mistake to kill off the series’ main protagonist like no big deal. It seems to me that if the producers could do anything to send the Iron Eagle films down the toilet it was to kill the hero, but other than that I liked this movie. It was as good as ‘Firebirds’ with Nicolas Cage, but without all the dumb jokes and comments the pilots in that movie made that rendered that film mildly annoying. I would have given Iron Eagle II five stars but killing Doug cost one.

Boxer

Review by chaplin@netlink.com.au for Iron Eagle II
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Well, this film was kinda lacking, in that Jason Gedrick’s character, Doug Masters, gets blown out of the sky in the first 3 minutes and that he was assigned a crappy callsign. However, the soundtrack was ok, but not as brilliant as the original.. There are more plot holes than the original.. Ever notice how the Russian soldier, (“Lebanov”, I think his name was) is the same guy who played a Mid-Eastern bad guy and tortured (read: beat-up) Doug’s dad, Colonel Ted Masters in the first movie… Ha! Only true Iron Eagle devotees would notice that one.. you’ve got to get all four of these movies and sit around with some friends from your school days (let’s face it, that’s when we had IRON EAGLE in our blood) and get some pizzas and beer and enjoy them all over again!Long Live Chappy Sinclair!