THE LOOKOUT, 2007
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Robert's Review

Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was once a promising high school athlete and one of the most popular kids in school until one day he decided to do something monumentally stupid and caused a major auto accident that resulted in the death of two classmates and permanent brain damage for him. Now he has to write everything down or otherwise he will forget to do things in sequence. Get up, take show, use soap, eat breakfast, lock the door, etc. He now works as a night-shift janitor as a small bank and he soon meets some unsavory characters who are planning on robbing that bank… with his help. He initially agrees to help, buying into their spiel about "whoever has the money has the power" and with their help, Chris could have power and control back in his life (like back before the accident).

"The Lookout" has received some rave reviews from the mainstream critics. The trailers for this movie had quotes like "It's a masterpiece" and therefore I was very excited to go see it. However, I'm incredibly curious if I watched the same movie as these critics… to me, "The Lookout" was semi-interesting, but ultimately not that enjoyable. The concept was well done and the acting was good (Gordon-Levitt does a great job and so does Jeff Daniels who plays Chris' blind roommate), but I just couldn't emotionally connect with the characters and didn't really care about what happened to them. The story centers on Chris and his disability and tries to make us feel sorry for him, but it was his own stupid fault for causing that accident in the first place AND for agreeing to help the thieves rob the bank… so he's two for two on the "Boneheaded Moves" scoreboard and I don't' see any reason to feel sorry for him. Overall, the story just didn't interest me that much and when I left the theater I was just stumped as to how a movie like this could garner such rave reviews from the mainstream critics… maybe the studio lined the critic's pockets? Maybe this just isn't "my kind of movie?" Who knows? In any case, I digress... I'd say way for the DVD if you really have to see this movie. Oh yeah, here's a fun fact… this movie was ranked No.11 (earning only $2 Million) on opening weekend!!! THAT speaks volumes about this movie.

All in all, I'd give this movie 2 STARS (out of 5). Re-watch value: LOW (If it's on cable and there's nothing else on, I may watch it again).

Brett's Review

"The Lookout" is a bad excuse for a movie; it's about entertaining as watching a rock orbit the sun. However the T.V. sitcom "Third Rock from the sun" was very funny. "The Lookout" is about Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who was once a promising high school athletic hockey player whose life is turned upside down following a tragic car accident. As he tries to maintain a normal life, with short term memory loss and having to write everything down he takes a job as a janitor at a bank. However he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned bank heist at the very bank he works at.

"The Lookout" tries very hard to be a quasi-Memento; however it does not succeed very well. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels do a fairly good job at keeping the chemistry, but at the end of the day they just can't keep this movie a float. One of the biggest issues I had with this movie was the fact that Chris has short term memory loss, and has to write down everything in order to remember it later. We see an excellent use of this in the first 10-20 minutes of the movie, however during the movie it becomes less and less. People he has never met he instantly knows their name, places he has never been he knows how to get there without help; it's as if he remembers everything. Near the ending of the movie maybe the last 20 minutes we start to see the short term issues again arise, I think Scott Frank (the writer/director) had short term memory loss during the filming and forgot to write down "make sure the movie is consistent". The story and plot is almost a generic version of Memento, and unfortunately it doesn't make a very good version. I think maybe the studio Miramax should spend time to review the scripts that cross their desks and they should be on the lookout for a really bad attempt to copy a good movie.

Overall Rating 2 Stars out of 5 (Daniels and Gordon-Levitt tried really hard). Re-Watch Value: Low (if you must see it... rent it or watch it on cable).