Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
2.5/4
Stewart n' Hitch.
memento_mori - wrote on 07/08/2013
Alfred Hitchcock truly is a master of suspense, because this movie has a lot of it… almost too much of it… it's interesting, but it gets boring.
Rear Window is one of the first Hitchcock movies I saw, and I have mixed thoughts about it.
To name a few positives: I love Jimmy Stewart. The guy is purely charismatic and funny, and he makes his character stand out in this movie. He has so little to work with and so many limitations due to his character's physical state, but he pulls it off.
Grace Kelly and Thelma Ritter were likable side-characters, but they mainly served the purpose of helping Stewart.
The direction is also a definite stand-out, with many wide-angle scopes of a Greenwich Village neighborhood block.
I mentioned limitations before, and this movie truly is full of …
Rating of
2/4
A Thrill-less Thriller
JLFM - wrote on 05/20/2013
*This review contains spoilers*
This is perhaps the most disappointing film I've seen all year. Despite brief moments of brilliance and a clever premise, Rear Window is a confused, often tedious, and mostly uninteresting thriller. The film's suspense is all contained within the last half hour, though much of the suspense is diluted through obvious character oversights and a curiously stupid villain.
L.B. Jefferies, a photographer, is confined to his apartment after breaking his leg on the job. With nothing else to do, he passes time by spying on the neighbors through their windows from his room, as he has an excellent view. But things get interesting (at least for Jefferies) when he notices suspicious behavior from one of the neighbors. Jefferies believes there to be a murder, but …
Rating of
3.5/4
Be careful looking out the window!
MovieAddict - wrote on 12/26/2012
James Stewart stars as L.B. Jeffries, a war photographer confined to a wheelchair who spends the better part of his days viewing the many happenings of his neighbors across the way from him, via binoculars and zoom telephoto lens and camera thanks to his rear window which has a perfect view of everyone there. It's like watching about 15 different soap operas at once.
His only contact with the outside world arrives in the form of his nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter), and female friend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), a rich socialite who has a romantic interest in Jeffries.
As Jeffries watched neighbors, he becomes suspicious of Lars Thorwald, (Raymond Burr), a salesman with a wheelchair-bound wife who disappears suddenly on a rainy night. Clues he pieces together from his voyeurism …
Rating of
3.5/4
"Rear Window" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 08/07/2012
A photo-journalist laid up with a broken leg entertains himself by watching the daily coming and goings of his neighbours but mounting circumstantial evidence leads him to suspect that one of them has committed a grisly murder. Hitchcock was always the consummate voyeur and in Rear Window he draws us into the realm of the peeping Tom as he teases and titillates with the smallest of clues and half-overheard conversations as helpless hero James Stewart pieces together a potential crime that could just as easily be an innocent misunderstanding. It's quite interesting how Stewart is immobile during the entire film and as such can be seen as one of the most "impotent" heroes you'll ever see. In fact he could be accused of emotionally blackmailing his would-be fiancee into taking all the risks …
Rating of
3.5/4
Rear Window review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 09/20/2011
L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) is an injured photographer stuck in his apartment. His girlfriend Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly) assists him solve a possible murder across the building. Jeff uses his binoculars and a long focus lens of his camera to snoop his neighbor’s privacy of their own home while giving them nicknames: Miss Lonely Heart, Miss Torso, and Songrwiter. He also informs his NY police detective friend Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey) to investigate. Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), the jewelry salesman becomes conspicuous of L.B.’s intent and drops by his apartment. The script was well written based on a few lines from the picture: Stella – “What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.” “Every man's ready for marriage …
Rating of
4/4
"What Do You Think?"
J_Chambers_1985 - wrote on 10/02/2009
I think that this is by far one of the most brilliant written and directed movies of all time.
In Rear Window we meet L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) a photographer confined to a wheel chair. L.B. when he's not busy wining and dining with his would be girlfriend Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly) he's busy watching/spying on his apartment dwelling neighbors. One of whom he believes has committed a murder. Hitchcock in Rear Window went and created a tiny world with in a much larger world and from the very beginning to the very end the viewer is drawn into this world and the memorable characters within it.
Other then that basic setup there's little more I can say about this movie to truly do it justice. Rear Window 5 out of 4 stars and three thumbs up a timeless …
Rating of
4/4
"What have you done with her?"
Arbogast1960 - wrote on 03/27/2008
Rip-roaring entertainment and deeper meaning? Godard and Haneke might pay attention. The study of voyeurism and the act of movie-watching is fascinating, and it's Hitchcock so there's never a dull moment. While some complain about the ending, wishing James Stewart would have been mistaken in his assumptions regarding his neighbor, this would have smacked of simplistic, gotcha storytelling too lazy for Hitchcock to countenance. Instead, Hitch faces the moral ambivalence squarely and beautifully. The viewer is implicated in the character's misdeeds by his viewing, and the decline of modern civilization/civility is seen in the willingness to spy on one's own neighbors, who are viewed as broad stereotypes rather than human beings. At the same time, the character's (and viewer's) …
Rating of
3/4
Rear Window
Franz Patrick - wrote on 12/24/2007
A movie that keeps you guessing from beginning to end. Although some scenes reminded me of "Vertigo" (in the end) and "The Birds" (in the beginning), it does not defeat "The Birds" when it comes to thrill and horror, nor does it surpass "North by Northwest" when it comes to adrenaline. This movie is nothing but engaging and voyeuristic, which works in a lot of levels. I also like how the characters describe their thoughts about the murder because, at times, I was thinking what they were thinking (no matter how ridiculous it is). That kind of projection and exchange are nice to encounter in a classic film because it proves its timelessness. It also reminded me somewhat of "Halloween" because even though it does not show any gore, the creepy factor is there and it makes it all the more …
