Director Duncan Skiles, whose 2018 thriller The Clovehitch Killer has developed something of a cult following in recent years, returns with Neighborhood Watch. Skiles' latest has the sort of setup that fuelled many a comic thriller back in the '80s. It's a classic buddy movie, pairing two mismatched misfits for an adventure that plunges them into their city's criminal underworld. 40 years ago it would have paired a seasoned veteran like Nick Nolte or James Woods with a rising comic star like Eddie Murphy or Michael J. Fox. It also likely would have struck a more natural balance between its comedy and its action, something Skiles and writer Sean Farley never quite pull off here.
The modern day Murphy/Fox figure is Jack Quaid's Simon, a mentally troubled young man who spent a decade in a psychiatric institution following years of childhood abuse at the hands of his father. Now released into the care of his older sister DeeDee (a wasted Malin Akerman), Simon is struggling to fit back in with the world. The noises in his head cause him to utter gibberish, which his doctors have labelled "word salad," and he's plagued by hallucinations, often of his father. One day while passing an alleyway, Simon sees a man bundle a screaming young woman into the back of a van and drive off. Did it really happen or was it another of Simon's hallucinations?
The Nolte/Woods surrogate here is Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Ed, a volatile middle-aged man who lost his job as director of security at a local college campus, where he still hangs out looking out for mischievous kids. Aware of Ed's past and having had no luck convincing the police of what he witnessed, Simon asks the curmudgeon for help. Ed is initially hesitant to spend time with this crazy kid, but seeing the opportunity to return to some good old detective work, Ed indulges Simon and the pair begin an investigation into a crime that may never had actually happened.
All the elements for a successful blackly comic crime thriller are set in place in Neighborhood Watch's first act, but the movie fails to develop them in an entertaining manner. While Simon feels sufficiently fleshed out, and Quaid does a fine job of portraying his mental issues without leaning into cheap and distasteful mockery, Ed is too inconsistent to be believable. The script struggles to find compelling reasons for Ed to continue to help Simon, and he seems to change his opinion of the younger man solely for the convenience of moving the plot along. There's none of the comic tension of something like 48 Hrs. as Simon and Ed become friends far too early, denying us the sort of bickering that usually makes these stories so entertaining.
The plot is similarly half-baked, and things seem to happen simply because they have to in order for the story to continue. Plot holes and inconsistencies arise, leaving us asking questions regarding how certain characters come to certain conclusions. Tonally, the movie makes an awkward switch from the light comedy of the first half into something closer to a straight thriller in its back half, rather than blending the two elements together for the duration. Given how the movie's low budget means we don't get any of the car chases or shootouts we would have back in the '80s, Neighborhood Watch really needed to lean more into its comic potential. As the movie plods to its conclusion, we're left to wonder how much fun this would have been 40 years ago.
Directed by: Duncan Skiles
Starring: Jack Quaid, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman
