VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Robert J. Maxwell This movie is about a novice security-system salesman (Arquette) who has an affair with one of his clients (Capshaw) and, when she and her son are murdered, comes to believe that his effluvial boss (Tucci) did the deed. This conviction comes to him after he's visited by Capshaw's spirit who advises him, "Get the bastard." And, indeed, the talkative Tucci is not a palladium of morality. He kicks in doors to create incidents which in turn create fears in Los Angeles neighborhoods. And when he learns of a rich potential client's home being empty for a while, he's not above committing burglary. So when Capshaw and son die, Arquette -- enraged, half insane -- kidnaps Tucci and takes him to a deserted spot in the desert. Just before shooting him, he discovers that the real killer has been captured. He and Tucci make up and agree to work together again.Each of the individual scenes is pretty keenly observed. Nice little everyday details, amusing in their familiarity and even funnier when they stretch the envelope. The whole thing doesn't hang together very well. There's a major weakness in the plot -- Arquette's vision. Nothing has really prepared us for it. Arquette has never been crazy or anything other than a bit self conscious. And then in thirty seconds of screen time he turns delusional. Tucci's earnest logic -- he admits to being full of crap and a thief but he had absolutely nothing to gain by Capshaw's death -- makes no difference to Arquette, whose mind is made up. I know. This is beginning to sound like today's political arena.The movie is shot mostly in a classical style with little in the way of directorial dazzle, though there are a couple of overhead shots that are inconsistent with the rest, and one or two scene in something like step motion that don't belong there.As the central character, Arquette is given to over display but is otherwise unexceptional. The story is more or less held together by Stanley Tucci's performance and his mustache, a combination of British military and Groucho Marx. He's a splendid actor of considerable range. (Catch him in "The Big Night.") There is a lengthy sequence towards the end that has Tucci tied up on the desert floor and Arquette waving a pistol over him, about to kill him, and it's all made bearable by Tucci's response to the situation. He switches in an instant from squealing with terror to blustering self defense.Kate Capshaw gives another convincing performance. She's no longer the glamorized hero of adventure movies in which she's confronted with a dish of monkey brains. She's aged somewhat. She's beautiful, very sexy, and gives the best performance I've seen her in.It's not a poorly done film. Despite its weaknesses, it has its genuine moments. One of them is when Arquette is sitting in the living room, trying to sell his security system to an elderly couple, when the old dude suddenly leaps up and shouts that he has his OWN security system and breaks out his armory -- M-16, AK-47, a .357, a .454, and some grenades. ("Maybe it's excessive," says the beaming little old lady who is his wife -- remonstrative, you know, but proud too.) The ending is completely incredible. It's like having a plug in your front tire, trying desperately to keep the air from escaping. And there's an unnecessary epilogue that I suppose was intended to be funny.

strangerdave-2 What begins as a fairly clever farce about a somewhat shady security monitoring company turns, almost instantaneously, into an uninteresting and completely inane murder mystery. David Arquette and the great Stanley Tucci try mightily to make this train wreck watchable, but some things are just not humanly possible.What, for instance, causes Gale to turn suddenly from a sweet motherly figure into a drunken shrew at Tommy's parents house? Why would Heinrich, although admittedly a sleezebag, want to destroy the business to which he devotes his life, by robbing and possibly murdering his customers? Why does the seemingly sensible Tommy believe that Heinrich could be a murderer (based almost entirely on a dream), and even if that were believable, why wouldn't he go to the police? And why didn't Gale activate the alarm when she got home, especially after scolding Howie about it being off? Of course, all of these events are necessary for the plot (and I use the term very, very loosely) to unfold. And it might be forgivable if it resulted in even the slightest bit of comedy. But everything, from Howie's description of his date rape, to the coroner's misidentification of Gale, to the final "joke" about Gale and Howie still being dead, is more tasteless and pathetic than anything else.I checked the box indicating that my comments contained "spoilers", but there's nothing more I or anyone else could do to spoil this thing that already stinks to high heaven.

gridoon "The Alarmist" has a pointless first half, with David Arquette's stiff acting getting in the way of any possible comedy, but gets better in the second half, when it enters darker territory and presents some unexpected plot developments. And yes, Kate Capshaw does look good for her age. (**1/2)

Ed Uthman Although the ending is likely to disappoint, this weakness should not dissuade one from watching THE ALARMIST. All the characters are appealing, the script witty, and the pacing tight. The interactions between Howard and Tommy and the family dinner scene are especially good. Stanley Tucci attacks his part with both barrels.A word about Kate Capshaw: Wow! A forty-something grand multipara in real life, Kate is as attractive as a woman can be. While much credit is due the cinematographer for knowing how to shoot her in soft, warm light, her native charms give him a lot to work with. She endows her character with the sweetness of youth and the cynicism of maturity. I see from her filmography that she has been working pretty steadily since INDIANA JONES days, but I must have missed most of her films. Maybe the financial security Mrs Spielberg enjoys allows her to limit her work to small, low-key pictures with little marketing, but I sure would like to see her hit the big-time.