Leofwine_draca This remake of Hitchcock's classic tale can't equal the master's work, but is a suspenseful and interesting little movie with plenty of thrills for the modern audience. A real-life disabled Christopher Reeve (as a result of a fall from his horse) takes the lead role originally played by Jimmy Stewart, and manages to create a warm and sympathetic character despite the fact he's a voyeur who enjoys watching the private antics of the people living opposite him. Although the film is packed with plot contrivances and skimmed-over holes (WHY didn't anyone else hear a scream that night, anyway?), it's easy to forgive these and concentrate on the strong use of lighting and the riveting story woven in only a few separate locations.Okay, so the film does have many problems, like the tacked on, rather silly, Reeve vs. killer finale and some cloying sentimentality which threatens to become distasteful, but on the whole this is a harmless and watchable television movie with a lot more subtlety - and intelligence - than most of its ilk. Daryl Hannah plays the female love interest and it's a revelation to find that she can actually act instead of just playing a blonde bimbo; okay, so she's not great, but she'll do. Veteran Robert Forster also turns up playing a cop as always, putting in a nice cameo. The killer is enjoyably hissable and there are plenty of interesting minor characters whom we only ever see through the windows of the apartments caught up in their own little worlds.REAR WINDOW is at its strongest with the characterisation, and the prevalence of realism over special effects or action makes it down-to-earth and appealing to a family audience. Like Reeve's character, the film manages to hook you into getting involved with the machinations of the people we only witness through the glass. There are a couple of spooky bits involving good use of shadows (memorably highlighting a girl's face, turning her into a grinning demon) and unnatural phenomenon (welding sparks causing a room's ceiling to flicker mysteriously), although I could have done without the twist downbeat ending which just seems to have been tacked on for the sake of it (as a homage to Hitchcock perhaps; a final joke at the audience's expense?). Otherwise, REAR WINDOW is an agreeable watch even if not up to the level of the original classic.

gcd70 As is par for the course with remakes of classic films like Hitchcock's "Rear Window", this made for television effort is not a shadow on the original.This particular re-working has updated the original premise to the modern era, and Christopher Reeve's bed-ridden voyeur is afforded the luxury of video surveillance and computer technology. Although creative in its new adaptation, this is about as good as it gets. Too much time is spent laying the foundations of the plot, and not enough time is left to make it work.Christopher Reeve, it must be said, puts in an amazing effort as the paralysed architect who believes he has witnessed a murder. I understand they actually turned the actor's oxygen off for real! Richard Forster is good too, but Daryl Hannah….well, she didn't really have enough to do.Friday, March 19, 1999 - T.V.

TheUnknown837-1 1998 was the year of the Alfred Hitchcock legacy remakes. Three of the master of suspense's most famous motion pictures ("Rear Window" (1954), "Psycho" (1960), and "Dial M for Murder" (1954) were remade in the same year. They gave writing credit to the original story, novel, and play authors that inspired Hitchcock's movies, but they were essentially just remakes, or in the case of one, a copy. Now I saw the 1998 remake of "Rear Window" (1954) within a week of the diabolical copy of "Pyscho" (1960), so my expectations for the remake of the former were immediately lowered and I was frankly expecting another hour and a half of torture. What I got surprised me. I do not recommend the remake of "Rear Window", but I must admit that it exceeded my low expectations and for the first two-thirds of the film, I was enjoying mild entertainment until the third act, when the film shot itself in the foot, fell flat on its face, and did not get back up again.The plot is basically the same as the original 1954 film with a few minor changes to the characters. In the original, the protagonist of the film was a photographer played by James Stewart confined to a wheelchair by an accident. In the remake, the protagonist is a quadriplegic played by real-life quadriplegic Christopher Reeve, who made this movie shortly after his horse-riding accident that left him disabled for the rest of his life. Save for a few other changes, the plot and basic unfolding of the story is the same, with Reeve looking out the window at his neighbors across the courtyard and becoming interested and suspicious when the wife of an abusive man (Ritchie Coaster) disappears mysteriously.First of all, let me hand out my praises to Christopher Reeve for his terrific performance. It was very authentic of the filmmakers to cast Reeve since he was a quadriplegic and Reeve used all that he had and gave us a very sympathetic and likable character. I was also very pleased how in the beginning, the filmmakers used some of their own ideas instead of just flat out borrowing from the original. I also felt the music by David Shire was very good; it reminded me a lot of James Horner's magnificent score from "Braveheart" (1994).Unfortunately, the movie also does have its flaws and when the third act of the film comes into play, that's when it really begins to suffer. For the flaws that existed right from the start, let's begin with the supporting cast. Darryl Hannah gives it her all, but she's just not as compelling as the well-written character played by Grace Kelly in the original. Robert Forster (who was also in the dismal 1998 remake of "Psycho" (1960), plays the detective who's helping the voyeur trying to solve what appears to be a murder case, but he doesn't have the same presence and charisma that came out of the detective played by Wendell Corey in Hitchcock's film. And what I missed most was the presence of a character like the one played by Thelma Ritter. In the original "Rear Window", she was the real light of the show. James Stewart was the star, but Ritter stole every scene she was in. Here, there's no such character. The protagonist's nurse is surprisingly dry and boring and there aren't really any substitutes. I also felt that the editing of this movie was vastly imperfect, with scenes going in and out and fading into and out of one another without any real sense of where it's going and scenes that are supposed to generate suspense and fear don't succeed. And in the final third of the movie, the filmmakers just take it in the wrong direction, play it out badly, and it becomes very standard, very conventional, and not very primal. And it was at this point that I really lost interest, for I felt I'd seen it before a million times, and even if I hadn't, I still doubt I would have been able to stay interested.My bottom line advice is the same for the two other 1998 remakes of Hitchcock's legendary films: rent the original. If you want a truly great mystery/suspense-thriller, stick with the master of suspense in the original "Rear Window" (1954). I definitely recommend seeing that one first and, if you're interested like I was, check out the remake with Christopher Reeve and you may or may not be totally disappointed. Me, I was left feeling a little letdown, but not anywhere near as much I was expecting and this is most certainly a better film that Gus Van Sant's diabolical remake of "Pyscho" (1960).

sol1218 Updated version of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic "Rear Window" with Christopher Reeves as quadriplegic Jason Kemp who unknowingly spies upon a violent domestic dispute by his neighbors across the yard that possibly later escalated to murder. Recovering from a car smash-up architect Jason Kemp is left without the use of his arms and legs and very bitter that his latest project was given to fellow architect Claudia Henderson, Daryl Hannah, who took over for him while he was hospitalized.Back home Jason is given all the high-tech equipment to make his life, and in-home work,a lot easier. Even his relations with Claudia starts to warm up when he realizes that she's not trying to upstage him but wants him to be part of the project that she's doing. Jason later falls in love with Claudia who among other thing made his life a lot happier by her concern and attention towards him at this very critical time in his recovery. With nothing to do with his free time Jason watches, with a zoom-video camera, what his neighbors are doing across the back-yard of his apartment building. He then soon notices this couple constantly fighting with each other. Not taking it seriously at first Jason sees that the fights are a lot more intense and violent then your average family squabbles. One evening Jason calls 911 when the husband Julian Thorpe, Richie Coaster, beats his wife Ilene, Allison Mackie, to the point where she almost loses consciousness. The next night after Julian was released from police custody Jason hears a blood-curdling scream coming from the Thorpe apartment then all is deathly quite. Spying on the Thorps the next few day, to see if everything is all right, Jason notices something very strange and disturbing. Ilene is no longer there and Julian is living with another woman, who turned out to be Ilene's sister, who stole or also took over Mrs. Thorpe's identity. Better then average made-for-TV thriller that turned out to be actor Chris Reeves' last, and most personal, movie role. Suspenseful build-up as Thorpe slowly realizes that he's not only being spied on by Jason but that Jason knows what he did to his wife and tries to murder him to keep Jason from going to the police. The ending of "Rear Window" is a bit of a let-down but at the same time more intriguing then that of the 1954 version of the movie by leaving it, the ending,up in the air and to the imagination of the viewers.Chris Reeves was playing himself in the movie "Rear Window" as he was a real victim of a spinal-cord injury, that he suffered from a raiding accident on May 27, 1995, that left him paralyzed for the rest of his life until he passed away just days after his 52th birthday. Christopher Reeves made a much bigger impact on the public in the courage that he showed and energies that he gave in battling the disability that he suffered and making it,the cure for Neurolog Disease, the cause that he fought for until his death. Reeves helped create the Christoper Reeves Paralysis Foundation and thus helping, as well as inspiring, thousands of others suffering from that disabling disease with the hope that advanced medical treatments hopefully will eradicate it in the very near future. Chris showed the public, in the last nine years of his life, that he was just as much the man Superman while confined in a wheelchair in real life as the was the comic book hero Superman that he played in the movies.