Jack Quaid & Jeffrey Dean Morgan Team Up in ‘Neighborhood Watch’ – A Must-See Thriller!

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This current decade hasn’t been too shabby for me, a movie enthusiast speaking here, especially when it comes to my acting career. I’m Jack Quaid, son of the renowned actor Dennis Quaid and actress Meg Ryan, and my facial feature that resembles a distinctive triangular grin is a dead giveaway.

I kicked off 2019 with a bang on Prime Video’s series The Boys, and it seems like I’ve been juggling roles ever since. Now, here I am, in April, gracing the screen in “Neighborhood Watch,” director Duncan Skiles’ delightfully low-key, ’80s-flavored crime thriller. This is already my third film this year, and it feels like just yesterday when the curtain went up on 2023!

As a supporter, I’d rephrase the given text as follows:

In 2025, Neighborhood Watch might not be the most acclaimed or buzzworthy movie on his schedule, but it could prove to be the most transformative for his career. While films like Novocaine and Companion demonstrated his ability to handle a studio production and create a menacing character respectively, his performance in Neighborhood Watch is particularly noteworthy.

Unlike other actors who might have overplayed the role, he subtly slips into a challenging part that many would have tackled with too much intensity. This understated approach makes his portrayal in Neighborhood Watch truly encouraging and shows his maturity as an actor.

In the role of Simon, a man with schizophrenia who firmly believes he saw a kidnapping despite others doubting him, Quaid portrays his character with nervous glances and restrained body language. He forms an effective duo with his co-star from “The Boys,” Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who finds some purpose in his solitary existence by assisting Simon in investigating the potential crime. The pair manage to keep the film engaging despite its minimal tension and action, offering a slightly rough, casually sarcastic version of Martin Brest’s Midnight Run and other partnerships from the 1980s.

Jack Quaid Takes a One-Note Character and Makes Us Care About Him

As a movie enthusiast, I must say that Quaid delivers an exceptional performance in breathing depth into a character that could easily have been one-dimensional. Simon, at the start of the film, grapples with schizophrenia, and fortunately, the script doesn’t resort to an unrealistic cure by the movie’s hasty ending. His victory may not be grand, but given his humble beginning, it’s more than satisfactory.

Initially encountered during a chaotic job interview at a diner, Simon appears to be a distressed young individual. Having just been discharged from compulsory psychiatric care, Simon bears the marks of self-inflicted injuries on his wrists and often speaks loudly and irrationally, causing alarm among those nearby. Additionally, he experiences auditory hallucinations of a threatening voice and visualizations of his abusive, deceased father’s menacing visage, which seems to be an excessive dramatic choice by writer Sean Farley in his otherwise sharp and straightforward script.

In his neighborhood, which is filled with abandoned shops and chipping paint, as captured by cinematographer Luke McCoubrey, Simon is regarded as an untrustworthy witness. This makes it understandable that the local police are skeptical when he claims to have witnessed a young woman being assaulted in an alley and forced into a white van. Since no one seems willing to assist him, Simon seeks help from his cranky neighbor, Ed (Morgan), who knows Simon as the neighborhood’s “scatterbrain.

Although the charismatic leader Quaid steals the show, it’s the enigmatic character of Ed played by Morgan who captivates more. With a side-parted combover and elevated cholesterol levels, Ed, a former campus security guard, seems to have lost his purpose when he lost his job. Nowadays, he spends his days at home (kudos to production designer Adam Pruitt for creating the setting), losing money on online poker, eating dinner from a TV tray, and boasting about his role in law enforcement. Despite initially thinking that the situation might be fabricated by Simon, Ed’s eagerness to prove himself as a real crime solver overpowers his skepticism.

‘Neighborhood Watch’ is no ‘Zodiac’… And That’s Okay

The investigation led by Simon and Ed may not evoke thoughts of David Fincher’s Zodiac, as that’s not the intended comparison. Instead, they make an unusual duo, compelled to collaborate due to their circumstances, where each is striving to demonstrate their abilities or maintain their composure. While Simon grapples with keeping his emotional issues in check, Ed takes on the brunt of Farley’s sharp remarks, which Morgan skillfully plays up with a pretentious macho attitude.

The primary obstacle in their investigation is that Simon frequently gets carried away with his tendency to speak in jumbled phrases and has outbursts of anger, such as when they go to the DMV to identify the owner of the white van and later at an auto scrapyard, where Simon experiences a breakdown. In accordance with the genre, Simon’s bond with Ed gradually improves, leading to Ed suggesting a helpful strategy for managing Simon’s mental health issues and teaching him techniques to detect lies (a clue: it involves blinking).

‘Neighborhood Watch’ Is Content to Be Moderately Engaging

Neighborhood Watch is decent, but at times it feels like it could use a bit more depth. While Simon’s schizophrenia isn’t used for laughs, it often serves as an obstacle in the investigation. Scenes with his understanding yet frustrated sister (Malin Akerman) offer some insight, but more could have been done. Skiles (from The Clovehitch Killer in 2018) tries to bring something extra as they get closer to solving the mystery, but the ending of the missing woman’s case presents an issue that might be too complex for this film’s scope. The movie seemed to work better when it stayed focused as a modest, character-driven crime thriller with a touch of flavor.

Regardless of whether Skiles effectively conveys the necessary vibe to make Neighborhood Watch a success, the film is likely to be chiefly recognized as just a brief pitstop for Jack Quaid in his journey towards greater fame. Neighborhood Watch, a production by Redwire Pictures and Filmopoly Production, and distributed by RLJE Films, will premiere both in theaters and on VOD starting April 25.

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2025-04-25 20:03