Stakeout (1987)
Directed by John Badham
Genres - Comedy, Romance, Action, Adventure, Crime |
Sub-Genres - Comedy Thriller, Police Comedy |
Release Date - Aug 5, 1987 (USA) |
Run Time - 115 min. |
Countries - United States |
MPAA Rating - R
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Though John Badham's Stakeout doesn't flinch in the violence department, the film concentrates primarily on characterization. Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez play a pair of Seattle detectives, assigned to capture escaped hood Aidan Quinn. The twosome spends much of the film on stakeout in a lonely, deserted house; the object of their scrutiny is Madeline Stowe, Quinn's former girlfriend. Pretending to be a telephone repairman, Dreyfuss plants a bug in Stowe's apartment--thereby inaugurating a romance that compromises the detective's objectivity. In the climax, Quinn gets the upper hand--at least until the fists start flying. Perfect as it stood, Stakeout didn't need to be elaborated upon with a sequel, but Another Stakeout was produced all the same.
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Keywords
criminal, escaped-convict, fugitive, detective, stakeout, surveillance, woman, girlfriend, hostage, romance, undercover, telephone-repairman, alcoholism