1987 Directed by John Badham
Two cops are given the 'dirty' job of staking out the home of an escaped convict's ex-girlfriend. Chris and the beautiful girlfriend accidentally meet and fall in love. Just as Chris confesses, the convict appears, but will she betray him ?
Richard Dreyfuss Emilio Estevez Madeleine Stowe Aidan Quinn Dan Lauria Forest Whitaker Earl Billings Jackson Davies Ian Tracey Denalda Williams J.J. Makaro Scott Andersen Tony Pantages Beatrice Boepple Jan Speck Kim Kondrashoff Gary Hetherington Don MacKay Don S. Davis David Brass Elizabeth Bracco Blu Mankuma Lossen Chambers Lloyd Berry
Stakeout - Die Nacht hat viele Augen (1987), Spanarna, Étroite surveillance
One of my favourite go-to films for when I feel like shit.
The only thing wrong with Stakeout (aside from the fact that it ends) is that no jokes are made about Dreyfuss and Estevez's matching moustaches.
I reviewed this twice already.
Madeleine Stowe <3
Whatever happened to Aidan Quinn?
Some classic '80s high jinx as Seattle PD detectives Chris Lecce (Richard Dreyfuss) and Bill Reimers (Emilio Estevez) 'stakeout' the home of the beautiful Maria McGuire (Madeleine Stowe) whilst they await her violent prison escapee ex-boyfriend Stick Montgomery (Aidan Quinn) to get in touch.
There's only one problem though in that what should be a pretty standard detail conducted without her knowledge from across the street gets a little sticky when Chris oversteps the mark and ends up getting involved with Maria on a personal level and almost immediately falls in love with her.
And with the psychotic Sticks en route, it's about to get even stickier.
With great chemistry between Dreyfuss and Estevez - back when the latter was…
Man has it been a long time since I last watched Stakeout.
Those mustaches...Emilio...
Richard Dreyfuss plays a real creeper of a Police detective. Watching women shower while hiding under their bed, shakes the shit out of them when he wants to get a point across and impersonates a phone repair guy.
Emilio should have gotten more screen time in this.
I like Richard Dreyfuss but I just didn't buy him in the role of romantic lead. I just couldn't buy that romance.
Shit, side book with almost nipple.... didn't expect that. Thought this was PG. Oh it's 14A.
Madeline Stowe looking like breakfast.
Dan Lauria, the dad from Wonder Years has a role.
Heck Forest Whitaker shows up and Aidan Quinn plays the criminal ex-boyfriend.
For some reason I remember the sequel being funnier but this was still an enjoyable action comedy.
The 80s Christmas 5: Letterboxd’s Christmas Vacation
I was originally going to watch The Dark Crystal but after about 5 minutes of voiceover and the realisation it was all going to be puppets, I retreated to the safe haven of Stakeout.
But hey, here's an observation that will undoubtedly win me Review of the Year. Stakeout starts with a breakout and ends with a makeout.
Close Letterboxd.
John Badham's movies of the eighties and nineties were a mixed bunch of buddy-cop films, crime comedies, and the odd teen-friendly yarn that saw Matthew Broderick inadvertently try to start WWIII. The buddy cop films however had a real touch of class to them, with probably The Hard Way from 1991 giving both James Woods and Michael J Fox the sort of adult script both had been waiting for. Badham however had also done it back in 1987 with this film, Stakeout, which teamed Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez as a couple of wise-cracking Seattle cops sitting on a stakeout of an escaped criminal's former girlfriend. As expected there are plenty of laughs here when Dreyfuss falls for the lady…
Stakeout is funny and full of big action. I love the opening prison break, the relationship between Dreyfuss and Estevez is great, the rivalry with the day shift is fun, and the action set pieces are really good. The overall direction overall is solid, the score doesn't grate like most 80's action, and it's a simple concept executed well. It sure isn't perfect - Emilio Estevez gets short shrift while the film is too long, but somehow this charmed me into four stars.
What a boner.
I had deliberately queued up Stakeout a few days ago to come straight after Drinking Buddies as I was anticipating it to be completely terrible - and it did not disappoint. So I am very glad I took these steps.
I have reviewed Stakeout before here on Letterboxd and as is normally the case in instances like this, it does mean that I am left struggling to know what to say that I didn't say in the first review. But Stakeout is just one of those films I can stick on at pretty much any time, always know exactly what I am going to get, and therefore know I am going to get a film that is…
If I watch several buddy cop films in a week that I've already logged about half a dozen times before then always assume that I'm having the week from hell but that I feel better for having watched them.
Stakeout has, perhaps, become one of the more ignored and forgotten of the 'buddy' action comedies and thrillers from the 1980s - but I'm not really sure why. Whilst it may lack the immediately memorable and sometimes iconic moments of Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, 48 Hrs and Lethal Weapon, it is at least almost as good as all of them.
When I first saw it, I did have a slight problem with the mixture of tones in it. From the marvellous and ultimately fishy opening chase to the slapstick raids on Madeleine Stowe's apartment to another chase through some back yards, when the focus is on Estevez and Dreyfuss, the tone is almost always tongue-in-cheek save for one or…
It brings nothing new to the table, but "Stakeout" is honestly such an entertaining and consistently pretty funny under the radar buddy cop comedy. Richard Dreyfuss & Emilio Estevez are such a fun duo with one another, while Madeline Stowe is really just lovely here and her & Dreyfuss share really nice chemistry. The villains are weak and the story isn't exactly strong, but this for me delivered quite a bit of good laughs and some cool action beats as well. Just a considerably fun time overall!
In den 80ern gab es 3 Regisseure, die zufälligerweise alle John mit Vornamen heißen, deren Lauf an großartigen Filmen unvergleichlich war: John Carpenter, John Landis und eben John Badham. STAKEOUT habe ich damals sowohl im Kino gesehen als auch in annähernd fast zweistelliger Anzahl auf VHS. Der Film ist auch heute noch ein Highlight, was nicht auf die eher zweitrangige Story um den Ausbrecher Stick Montgomery zurückzuführen ist, sondern auf die wunderbare Chemie zwischen Dreyfuss und Estevez und Dreyfuss und der zauberhaften Madeleine Stowe. Da knistert es in jeder Szene mit Estevez im Comedy- und mit Stowe im Romance-Bereich. Alle 3 werden eine Menge Laune beim Dreh gehabt haben, da alles fluffig wie aus einem Guß wirkt, was dann auch wieder auf Badham zurückzuführen sein dürfte, da er sie einfach machen lässt. Ein Skandal, dass es den Film in Deutschland in keiner adäquaten Form auf Scheibe gibt, zumal STAKEOUT für mich heutzutage besser funktioniert als die leicht vergleichbaren LETHAL WEAPON-Teile.
A gem from the late 80's that is in need of a fresh new transfer for blu ray. But, aside from that the DVD still looks pretty good. Maybe one of these days I'll check out the sequel.
Cast and script are solid. The music is a bit outdated but apropos for the time. Love the "Jaws" reference!
