Neighborhood Watch

Neighborhood Watch: I was surprised how enjoyable this video-on-demand crime thriller was. Starring one Johnny One Note actor I like (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and one Effeminate Nerd Method actor I don’t like (Jack Quaid), it’s a fairly standard buddy movie (the two main characters initially seem {bi}polar opposites, but of course, overcome their differences by film’s end) with just enough new touches to make it seem fresh.

Simon (Jack *Effeminate Nerd Method* Quaid) is a recently released schizophrenic still struggling with hallucinations of his abusive dead father and unable to find work (when stressed, as he frequently is, he speaks word salad gibberish). Wandering home after his latest fiasco of a job interview, he sees a young woman being beaten and forced into the proverbial white van. Our nutcase reports the crime to the police, but, of course, he can’t control his lunacy and the lady cop doesn’t believe him. Desperate to rescue the girl, our lunatic hero-wannabe turns to his cranky next door neighbor Ed (Jeffrey Dean Morgan in his usual gruff, sarcastic alpha male mode) for help. Ed is the retired former head of security for a college campus who is perpetually annoyed at being labeled a *security guard.* Initially, of course, Ed doesn't want anything to do with Simon, whom he nicknames *Screw Loose* and *Taffy Brain,* but with no friends and no job and nothing to do but stew in resentment, he relents and the two heroes set about saving the damsel in distress.

The looney tunes gimmick, Simon’s schizophrenic tics, hallucinations and verbal outbursts, keep the familiar story from turning stale, and I have to credit Jack Quaid for a fairly convincing performance, though there is still a whiff of the effeminate nerd to him. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is pitch perfect as cantankerous, brusque, self-assured retiree grappling with loss (his character wears a wedding ring but there is no wife to be seen) and diminishing relevance. Morgan and Quaid work well together and manage to infuse what could have been a yawner with just enough humor and pathos to keep the viewer engaged from beginning to end.