#eye of the beholder#

source: Eye of the Beholder

If you love terribly boring movies, with terribly confusing plots, terrible acting, and most definitely terrible endings then this is the film for you. I hated it. Wouldve given it 0 stars if possible. Worst of all I can never get those 90 minutes of my life back. Don't waste your time like I did. This is perhaps the most boring and stupid movie ever made. Do not rent it unless you want to sit around for what seems like an eternity just to have nothing happen at the end. An exercise in endurance is definitely needed to be able to watch the whole thing. The plot is convoluted and goes nowhere. The movie jumps from one scene to another without any substance or development. Not to mention there is a stupid ending making the entire wait even more worthless. Stay away at all costs!

I kept waiting and waiting for some clue as to what in the world was going on, who was related to whom, and what was this all about? And I'm usually a very perceptive movie-goer. A very unsatisfying waste of two hours. Really felt violated by the film-makers after this one.

Movies like this should come with a warning label: "Caution! Do not operate heavy machinery after watching" Unfortunately, I violated one of my own rules of movie-going: never---I repeat, NEVER---go to a movie that the "critics are raving about." The only reason ANYBODY would "rave" about this movie is they couldn't figure it out, so they figure it MUST have some deeper meaning. Anybody that doesn't like it must be one of the shallow, non-creative types that only likes predictable movies. There's ALWAYS a deeper meaning. Trust me. There's no deeper meaning. There's only two hours of non-stop rambling trash that you'll no-doubt find in the cut-out bin of your nearest video store in the next three months. No plot. No character development. Nada. Nil. Fin. Anything the so-called "critics" love is bound to be a worthless piece of #@!$.

I thought this movie was going to be interesting. Boy, could I have been ANY more wrong? Ashley Judd still gave a decent performance, even though the movie made absolutely no sense. All the characters seem to be wearing sort of old fashioned type clothes, yet the technology incorporated into the film is far too advanced for that. Also, if he is a British spy type guy, why is he following her all over the United States? The story line was horrible...all that happened was a few guys were murdered, Ewan MacGregor became obsessed with Ashley Judd, and he keeps seeing visions of his daughter who you assume was taken from him by his former wife, but she seems to appear as a ghost. (Who you even see blurs of in developed pictures...again, something that has nothing to do with what SHOULD be the initial plot.) The only effect this movie had on me was after it ended, I shrugged my shoulders and said "HUH?!" Don't waste your time on this one.

This movie made absolutely no sense at all. NONE. 'What?' and 'Why?' were questions I was asking throughout the film. I didn't understand what was going on at all. It seemed that each scene had absolutely nothing to do with the next, and in a movie like this you just assume "well it will all come together at the end." But it doesn't. Nothing is explained. I never understood what Ashley Judd's character was trying to do, and I never understood what "the Eye" was trying to find out. It's completely incoherent. I didn't understand this at all. I always thought that it was coming together, but everything always fell apart. It's no wonder that it wasn't released for so long after they made it. It didn't make any sense. It was a complete waste of time. It's like they were just making it up as they filmed it. If it wasn't for Ashley Judd's sudden popularity, I doubt it would've been released at all. Don't bother. I'm upset because I just wasted an hour and a half of my life.

Essentially, this is a giant mound of malodorous garbage of a film made, apparently, before Ashley Judd's successful appearance in DOUBLE JEAPORDY, having languished in a film can for some years and finally sold to its distributor for a meager $4 million to take advantage of Judd's newly found fame. This film was either made by someone whose bread is not quite fully baked or somehow terribly mangled in the post production and editing process to the point where nothing makes any sense. Dialog is often pointless and meaningless, action is not only unbelievable but often stupid. The film has no substantial story or structure. Its worse sin, it bores. The film, as it was presented in national release, depicts senseless murder and in a fashion that attempts to trivialize murder. The murders themselves are done by characters with no understood or delineated provocation nor are the murderer's characters developed to the point where it is possible to understand this extremely negative and destructive human behavior. This is not movie entertainment. It is incoherent, amateur waste of capital and will squander your time as well in the watching. We are not surprised by the release of the film since the bottom line of Hollywood, all too often, is greed. Each time an outrageous piece of dung like this is released it gives the industry and America a black eye. Spare yourself and stay away from this pile of rubbish.

i like to give every movie a chance, thus i watch the whole thing no matter how awful it is in the beginning and middle. i always hope for a redeeming end. i tend to get some type of satisfaction, but this movie just made everything ten times worse. the ending made absolutely no sense at all. in the beginning you are led to think that the story is actually going somewhere, but then it goes in a totally different direction. his obssession is never clear, never makes sense. his reappearing (ghost) daughter is totally stupid and never really explained thoroughly enough. it's really sad that two very good actors were cast in this. it seems like they truly are trying to do their best but are just as confused as the viewers. i found this movie to be a complete waste of time and money. very sad indeed.

Interesting to look back on. So was Eye Of The Beholder a let down? Well the answer has to be a no! I went to this movie having seen a single trailer that looked more intruiging that 'mindblowing' and I think that's the whole basis of the film. It's not an epic or a groundbreaking Matrix-esque special effects extravaganza...It doesn't pretend to be. It's straight up and honest. It's not glamorous and sometimes you wonder why the characters are doing what they're doing. The ghost of McGregor's daughter is an interesting addition that shows his lonliness and complusion to the job and at the same time his yearning and feeling of loss towards her. I came out of the film feeling like I had witnessed something that not many people would watch - and that they'd be missing out! So yeah, you might prefer to go and watch epics at the cinema but why not rent this out for a lazy saturday evening. It won't blow you away but at least it has thought behind it!