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Ridley Scott's SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME had the misfortune to come out during a time when FATAL ATTRACTION was going to change the whole look of the psycho-thriller movie. Thus by comparison, this film feels very ponderous and dated. It's a mixed bag of a production, with some decent performances and a nice visual style, but it doesn't really do much we haven't seen before.

It's clear from the outset that Scott is most interested in the dark and brooding cinematography here, because this is a fine-looking movie. The plot, which is about a cop who has to protect a woman who witnessed a mob murder, is less intriguing and indeed rather predictable. Tom Berenger is an acceptable hero and Mimi Rogers is ever-intriguing as the object of his desire, but I can't help but think there's a little too much romance here and not enough thrills. Jerry Orbach props up the supporting cast, as in so many films.

As other reviewers have noted, the story is none too special, quite generic. But even a generic story can be made memorable by good writing, good acting, and good directing; this movie has all three of those. Tom Berenger as the somewhat naive and vulnerable work-class junior detective. Mimi Rogers (who I did not even recognize initially, with the 80's hairstyle), as the upper-class murder witness. And even the supporting cast were all great. Nobody overacted, and no cliches. I credit the director, Ridley Scott, for keeping it low-key and believable.

When you use as a title one of the Gershwin Brothers great ballads you have me half sold on a film already. Some elements of the classic noir film Pitfall are present in Someone To Watch Over Me.

Unlike Dick Powell who is an insurance investigator , Tom Berenger is a detective with the NYPD. He's a regular blue color guy with wife Lorraine Bracco and a young son. He draws the task of guarding society woman Mimi Rogers who was the witness to a brutal killing by psychotic mobster Andreas Katsulas. The roles that Rogers, Bracco, and Katsulas play were done in Pitfall by Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, and Raymond Burr.

Like that line from the Gershwin song Berenger is lost and intrigued in the woods of Mimi's glamorous world. Berenger's head does more than turn as he gets into an affair with the woman he's supposed to be guarding.

Burr was a terrifying and brutal villain in Pitfall and Katsulas will scare the pants off you in this film. He's a bomb with a faulty timer. You never know when he's going off.

Film makers seem to love the Guggenheim Museum in New York to shoot glitzy gatherings in and no exception here. In fact the whole thing is shot on a budget to dwarf Pitfall.

All to good advantage as the leads give great performances. Look for a nice turn from Jerry Orbach as Berenger's superviser.

After Blade Runner R.Scott decided to play a film in one of the most "played" city in the world: New York. In a different way from Woody Allen he described the environment where the upper class lives. Manhattan belongs really to another planet and the scene in the Guggenheim Museum is breath-taking.

There is no doubt that Someone to Watch Over Me is a smoothly paced and extremely well made film. It is directed by Ridley Scott after all. There is also no doubt that the cast is fully capable and gets into their roles with a much needed grit and determination. Sadly, there is also no doubt as to just how unmemorable the film is. Here you have Scott genre hopping once again, with a story that has potential if told right and a talented cast that lend an air of believability to the cop genre when it is usually so overblown. Therefore it is so striking to me that so little of the film stays with you. It's almost as if those involved where intrigued by the premise but simply grew weary and bored the longer they were involved.

Said premise is effectively that family man cop Mike is assigned to protect wealthy socialite Claire after she witness a murder and the mobster who did it vows to come after her. The problem here is that you know exactly where this story is going and if you think there's going to be any twists or changes to the formula then you are sadly mistaken. Mike's wife seems trusting at first and Claire seems to appreciate how much he cares for his family. Yet after some encounters bring them closer they become more attracted to each other and Mike's wife begins to become suspicious. It's a shame that so little comes of this. Mike's wife and Claire have almost no contact so we don't get any feisty scenes or morality questioning ones.

Then you have the romance and it just doesn't work. Most of that comes from the fact that the actors have zero chemistry together. Though it's not that their performances are bad. Tom Berenger is one of the few serious actors of the time who could convincingly play a tough cop and Mimi Rogers does her best at giving Claire a gentle, attractive personality. The romance itself is just on autopilot throughout. They have a few close calls, he gets more protective and their suddenly head over heels. To the film's credit it is done with subtlety and isn't completely rushed, but for it to work you really must believe that these two characters are genuinely in love with each other and I never got a sense of that.

Lorraine Bracco performance as Mike's wife Ellie is one of the films best features. She brings a much needed liveliness and aggression to the film, as well as providing the dialogue with the punch it calls for. The character is believable as a wife who has stuck by her husband through thick and thin, whilst her more grounded beauty is a nice contrast to high glamour of Claire. I also think the scenes Berenger and Bracco share are always engaging and well-acted.

There is a distinct lack of danger and intensity throughout the film that is really noticeable. There is a sort of shoot-out at Claire's apartment that lacks any sense of threat and the would-be assassin looks very similar to Berenger, almost to the point where you can't tell who is who. The villain of the piece is so one-note, uninteresting and underdeveloped that he's barely worth a mention. While the climax certainly gets across that the stakes are high, it's a boring situation and one that is entirely predictable.

Scott's visual flair is evident throughout the film. Its warm atmosphere and subdued lighting scheme fit the image of New York it creates. The opening credits sequence, featuring Sting's title track, floats over New York at night and it is a beautiful way to open the film. In a way the film restricts Scott somewhat and it's a shame that the films grittiness limits his eye here, even if he does make the best of what he has. Michael Kamen's score is appropriately subdued and ambient, suitably lurking in the background instead of jumping out at you. Questions have to be asked over the sets however, with Claire's apartment appearing to be never ending.

In reflecting on the film, Someone to Watch Over Me becomes something curious. A film that is clearly well made and directed, but one that is mostly unengaging and leaves very little impact when it's finished. It sticks rigidly to a well-worn formula when it should attempt something fresh. It tries to convey a convincing romance without any chemistry. It comes to the conclusion you knew it would from the moment the story was set in motion. There is no questions over Ridley Scott's ability, I just wish that he'd have attempted to go against the grain with a story like this. In a way it is a testament to Scott's expertise that he was able to make the film as watchable as it is.

I came across this one while looking up Ridley Scott's movies, and this one looked like one of his weaker ones, so I didnt expect much, but I was surprised. The action was great, the music was cool, and the actors had great chemestry, Lorraine Bracco gave the best performance. After seeing this, I think this is one of Ridley Scott's better movies, the ones that were supposed to be his best(Blade Runner and Gladiator) bored the hell out of me. If you like a good action/thriller, give this one a try. 8.5 out of 10.

A working class, married cop is assigned to protect a rich socialite from a psychopath in Ridley Scott's 1988 film: what follows is a completely predictable thriller, with indifferent acting, forced local accents and a conclusion that advocates keeping guns at home. Just about the only interest comes from the fact that some of the characters, and by extension, the film itself, are supposed to be cool, so we get a reminder of what cool meant twenty years ago. Most obvious are the haircuts: bouffant for the men, perms for the ladies, although when a sequence is scored by a homeless man playing saxophone on the street, I couldn't help but smile. It's a bit scary to think that already two decades have passed since this film was made; but most movies of its time have not dated quite so badly.

I saw this movie when I was younger and for some reason it always stuck with me. I'll always remember the music (the title song as well as the classical pieces used throughout), the vestibule of Mimi Roger's apartment palace, the scene of Tom Berenger having breakfast with his family, Lorraine Bracco's fiery performance as his wife, and the haunting opening aerial shots of NYC lit up at night. I watched it again for the first time in probably nine or ten years and it was like visiting with an old friend or curling up with a good book you had read before. You knew the story, but it was all fascinatingly interesting. The plot here is pretty basic: working class cop has to babysit upper class babe who witnesses heinous murder. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how it all ends, but director Ridley Scott somehow manages to keep it compelling thanks to some great direction and wonderful performances from the cast. Somewhere I saw this billed as an erotic thriller, which is way off base. Scott keeps everything here extremely classy. It's more of a romantic thriller and throwback to the noir films of the 1940's. This may not be the best film you'll ever see, but it's one of the better thrillers of the 1980's, and a worthy testament to Ridley Scott's versatility as a director. It's also nice to see Jerry Orbach in a supporting role that probably paved the way for his part in the never ending "Law and Order" TV series.

This film couldn't have been more 80's if it was wearing leg-warmers. Shot with all the depth and meaning of an MTV video, it's ludicrously plotted, poorly acted and surprisingly, considering it's a Ridley Scott feature, rather boringly directed if truth be told.

Let's take the plot first and take your pick from the most far-fetched scenario, from the unlikely relationship between ever so rich, ever so posh Mimi Rogers and ever so working-class, ever so gauche Tom Berenger, to the mad murderer running about New York, coming back for lone witness, even after he's improbably let out on bail after a murder attempt, to the finale when Berenger's estranged wife comes to his aid in the most dramatic way and of course takes him back.

As for the acting, I didn't detect any heat between the leads at all, a situation not helped by Scott deciding not to give us a big sex-scene involving them, which while I'm no advocate for X-rated scenes, felt something more could have been done to explain the unlikely liaison between the two of them. They make a good-looking couple, but their characterisations are too one-dimensional, Rogers as the poor little rich girl and particularly Berenger with his sub-Rocky like enunciation and dumb-lunk portrayal.

I also felt there was too little action in the film and the intended suspense-ful bits were lacking in tension and th soundtrack an uneasy mix of jazz and pop, with the title song played far too often, no matter if it is in different guises.

It's certainly a beautifully shot film but the colours are too ripe as if the cameras are in permanent soft-focus mode, over-prettifying the cinematography.

I've struggled all through this review trying to avoid saying style over content, but there you go, I've said it...and I mean it.

For a Ridley Scott movie I was expecting something better, something more spectacular. After Alien and Blade Runner, two gems, you can only expect equal or better movies but this one isn't just that great. The story is a bit cheesy and even though the soundtrack makes it a bit suspenseful at times overal it's just not that great. Mimi Rogers was okay in her role, she's by far the best actress in this movie. Tom Berrenger and Lorraine Bracco are just not that convincing, just about okay to watch without getting annoyed. It's supposed to be a dark thriller but there is just to much romance and not enough thrilling to make it a good movie.

We've seen the script a hundred times if we've seen it once; happily married cop assigned to stand guard over a beautiful woman, cop falls in love with woman, etc. The difference with this one is that it actually works, even though you know how the story is going to go. Berenger is solid in the lead and Bracco fantastic as the fiery wife, while Rogers is sultry in a very classy way as the other woman. Andreas Katsulas is menacing and scary as Venza, which was perfect for this part. The classical music scores add a perfect touch, and the ending is actually quite thrilling. Something about this one just clicks, making it one of the better films of the genre. 7.5 out of 10.

This movie is about a cop who falls for a rich socialite who witnesses a murder.The cop is assigned to look over over her until the killer is caught.Eventually they both fall in love and have to decide between their separate lives!Ok movie if you like the films stars!!

Ridley Scott directed this modern urban drama about a blue-collar NYC cop assigned to protect a beautiful murder witness in her posh uptown penthouse. True to any romantic daydream the two fall in love, complicating the policeman's family life, but in spite of its contrived scenario the film manages to offer a surprisingly sensitive (if shallow) story, with Tom Berenger turning in a likable performance as the kind-hearted, hard working cop from the wrong side of the tracks, unable to resist the gloss and glamour of socialite/sophisticate Mimi Rogers. As usual Scott overdresses the visual scheme of the film, and the stylistic excess detracts from the suspense and credibility of Howard Franklin's script, making 1987 New York City look a lot like 2019 Los Angeles in 'Blade Runner', with lots of chrome and steam and flashing neon (even in closed elevators). But after overcoming an awkward opening the screenplay settles for a terribly convenient ending: there's nothing like having a murderous psychopath threatening your estranged wife to bring about a quick marital reconciliation.

The story for this movie probably was written in 5 minutes – it's that thin. "Someone to watch over me" still manages to be a entertaining small movie. Mainly thanks to the director and actors.

Ridley Scott directs it with passion , so the simple story is never boring and actually intriguing. It's also interesting how Scott can make a simple thriller visually attractive. Claire's house and the club are great eye candies . The art direction certainly deserves praise.

This straightforward story actually has a heart and the writer Howard Franklin wrote the relationships here really well. Everything feels natural and real.

Tom Berenger (mostly known for his performance in "Platoon" as the psycho soldier) gives a great performance as shy , down to Earth cop. He loves his wife and son , yet he gets tangled in a unwanted romance. Mimi Rogers is also great as the independent and feisty wife of Berenger. Lorraine Bracco makes her character really delicate and likable. The whole trio has a great chemistry together and they are the heart of the movie. Without their great performances the whole movie would fell apart.

It's one of those small movies that isn't really amazing or great , but you might like it for what it is. Not the best movie in Ridley's Scott career , but certainly not the worst. I give it 4/10.

All Along his career Scott has some finest movies like Blade Runner, Alien, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator just listing a few of them, that is not the case this one, sadly predicable and unbelievable, the story is good but didn't have and got a proper reputation.

Tom Berenger was peaking in great moment and made his best role in your life, but the movie didn't help to much, fine casting, well made, it doesn't necessarily means a success, as happened in this movie we could called good work for anybody else, however isn't to standard of Ridley Scott, he's in another level, was a wrong choice to do it!!!

Resume:

First watch: 1991 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.25.

A highly stylized crime thriller that also manages to work as a tale of adulterous romance in addition to an effective parable of the culture clashes that are apparent between the upper and lower classes. This is a film with multiple agendas, and Ridley Scott, best known at the time for 1979's ALIEN and 1982's BLADE RUNNER, is frankly an odd choice to direct such a picture. However, Scott proves himself to be up to the challenge, and film plays like a slightly abstract dream that isn't afraid to crash down into gritty realism on occasion. With his film noir skills perfected with BLADE RUNNER, Scott turns the focus from the future to an equally idealized version of the present (well, 1987 to be exact), but he maintains the same sense of visual menace and harsh industrialism.

Tom Berenger has received a considerable amount of criticism for the irritating fake Brooklyn accent he delivers his lines in, but I overall I found him to be quite acceptable in the role. Even better is Mimi Rogers, who convincingly portrays the detached loneliness of the high society lifestyle without the benefit of screen dialogue that permits her to openly address such an issue. Jerry Orbach and John Rubinstein are also memorable supporting parts, but it is Lorraine Bracco who steals the picture as Berenger's feisty wife. Long before she was best known as Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, Bracco brought to the screen the ultimate portrayal of the modern wife and mother - loving but fierce, tough but compassionate, and not afraid to slap some sense into the man who has done her wrong.

And I love Sting's opening rendition of the title Gershwin classic.

Pretty good, but dated Ridley Scott thriller. Andreas Katsulas absolutely outstanding as bad guy. Sting singing "Someone to Watch Over Me" makes me wonder why Sting has not recorded any jazz standards yet. Or has he?

Tom Berenger plays a tough cop in a movie directed by Ridley Scott . You can expect a lot with SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME but I'm afraid this isn't anything more than a very average movie . The plot is rather predictable with married cop Mike Keegan being assingned to guard a murder witness and then embarking on an affair with her . Of course since the average audience member wouldn't like it if their partner cheated on them Keegan's adultery is going to land him in serious trouble as it always does in all these type of movies . Perhaps Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson could make a movie called ON THE BEAT where a bunch of policemen discuss that two things cops must never do is have an affair with a character in a movie or go into a kitchen to get a drink of water since this almost always leads to movie cops being killed . Alternatively if film makers want to be even more radical they should do a movie where the only consequences of adultery is a guilty conscience

It's not just the predictable script that makes this very average , as I mentioned SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME stars Tom Berenger and is directed by Ridley Scott but neither star nor director seem to do anything to embellish the movie . Berenger especially is disappointing and his unconvincing " Noo Yiork " accent seems to disappear halfway through the movie . It's by no means a bad movie but is very average and everyone involved in this has done much better stuff