I had a feeling that I wouldn't like STAKEOUT before I watched it and in the end I was proved right. There's something about Richard Dreyfuss that I don't like and I have no idea what it is, except that maybe he's a bit too fussy and schmaltzy, given to appearing in overly sentimental fare; there are few films of his that I enjoy rewatching, aside from the obvious JAWS. Emilio Estevez has always felt like a wishy-washy B-movie player too and that's no exception here. The story, about spying on a pretty woman, is bland in the extreme, hardly enhanced by generic action scenes and kid-level comedy. The only interest arises from some random gags borrowed from Hong Kong fare such as the MY LUCKY STARS franchise.
Stakeout
1987
Action / Comedy / Crime / Thriller
Plot summary
The film opens with a daring escape of a convict imprisoned for killing an FBI agent, then moves on to two Seattle detectives chasing a suspect who gets away, destroying a forklift in the process, these two detectives are reassigned to a stakeout, watching the girlfriend of the escaped federal prisoner. One falls in love with her, the escaped convict eventually catches up to her, with them actually, and in the midst of their getaway, the escaped convict learns that his woman's man is a cop, but the two detectives kill him, saving the day.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Emilio Estevez as Bill Reimers
Forest Whitaker as Jack Pismo
Madeleine Stowe as Maria McGuire
Richard Dreyfuss as Chris Lecce
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB 1.05 GB
1280*688
English 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
Not a fan
Reviewed by
fun cop duo
Richard Montgomery (Aidan Quinn) makes a daring escape with the help of his cousin Caylor Reese (Ian Tracey). He killed an FBI agent and then they killed a prison guard. Chris Lecce (Richard Dreyfuss) and Bill Reimers (Emilio Estevez) are assigned to stakeout his old girlfriend Maria McGuire (Madeleine Stowe). Phil Coldshank (Dan Lauria) and Jack Pismo (Forest Whitaker) are the other two cops assigned the other half of the stakeout. She's suppose to be 313 lbs but instead, Chris starts falling for the beautiful McGuire.
This has some mildly funny moments. Estevez is solid as the happily married man. Dreyfuss is the one with the fun brash single guy. They have good chemistry together and it's mostly a good buddy cop movie. It's missing some bigger laughs. The guys are not necessarily comedians for that to work.
Reviewed by
Profane, But Good Comedy-Action Mix
This was a success at the box office because it had a great mixture of action and humor. Usually if you can do well in those categories on the same film, you have a hit. Richard Dreyfuss and Emilo Estevez play off each other well as "stakeout" partners and Madeline Stowe looks good as something good to stake out! It's basically a lot of fun to watch.
The only complaint is the language, a big reason this was rated "R." The two male leads use an excessive amount of the Lord's name in vain, which took a lot of enjoyment out of this film for me. Without it, I could easily rate this a "9/"
It was nicely filmed and, I presume, looks good on DVD. I haven't seen it on that format.