End of Watch

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  • #16
    Re: End of Watch

    Cloverfield was basically consistent though in telling the story from that "specific perspective."

    End of Watch was not.

    They would use that perspective some of the time. In my opinon even when they used it, it felt a little unbelievable - I mean was he just randomly filming stuff? Why was he filming? Was that ever explained? Maybe I missed it.

    And then mixing in video recordings from different aspects of their lives - the girlfriend filming herself, the wedding video, whatever else that was thrown in there...

    And then sometimes using a traditional (if a bit shaky) filmmaking approach made it visually (like the story) kind of a jumbled mess.

    Jeez, I just can't let this go, can I?

    I guess it's because I'm such a big fan and had such high (maybe unrealistic?) hopes for this.
    "I hate to break it to you but there is no big lie. There is no system. The universe is indifferent.- - Don Draper

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    • #17
      Re: End of Watch

      As a poster mentioned above, the villains really did come off as cartoonish. And there were definitely some contrivances and plotholes. Like the cartel boss (a) thinking that ordering the murder of two cops would solve his problems, and (b) ordering the hit via cellphone from his ranch in Mexico directly to a street-level gangster.

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      • #18
        Re: End of Watch

        Originally posted by joe9alt View Post
        Finally caught this on DVD and was excited to watch as a big Ayer fan.

        I thought it was pretty bad honestly.

        They hit the same beats over (yeah, they're friends and they're regular guys just like me and you - we get it) and over and over and over again and the villains came off as cartoonish.

        It took a series of contrivances to finally link up the villains and the heroes and did they really put a random "heroes save the kids from the fire" scene in there?

        Plus, there was no real plot.

        And the video camera thing was completely unnecessary and only partially deployed, anyways. I wonder if that was an offshoot of the found footage craze. I can picture an exec saying "it would be totally cool if these guys took their own movies -- like in CLOVERFIELD!" It was distracting.

        It's fine to do the gritty thing but you still need some semblance of a story. To compare this to TRAINING DAY is borderline insane.
        +1

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        • #19
          Re: End of Watch

          Finally caught this. Couple of thoughts on it:

          1. WTF with the POV/found footage. It didn't work. In fact, it pretty much sucked. The only decent piece of it was the dash cam stuff, the rest of it, in particular the first person shooter and reverse of that stuff was so ****ing lame. It felt like they started shooting the movie without a real production plan on how to execute that element and just stuck with it anyway.

          2. David Ayer got a "do over" for Harsh Times, because he wrote Training Day, and all three of these movies were 80% the same. I find it amazing that the guy has done three movies with so many shared elements. I am VERY curious to see what he does with the tank movie, he's going to have to prove that he's a director to be reckoned with on this one.

          3. What an amazing contradiction of highly watchable and completely stock moments and ideas. The plot line was incredibly thin, next to non-existent. I get that it was intended to be more a character study than a narrative, but this one was neither fish nor fowl, and IMO they tried to cover their bases in terms of commerciality at the expense of doing something that could have been more experimental and more interesting.

          4. Great, great, character moments. When he's good, he's freaking great.

          5. I LOVE what he does with L.A. as a character. This dude makes full use of the world of L.A. in such a believable way, the look, the feel the sounds. I grew up in L.A., I don't know if anyone else out there gets it as right as he does.

          6. Possibly the most hysterical exchange of dialog in history. "Why do they call you Big Evil?" "It's because my evil...is so big." I don't even know what to say about this one. Reminds of a time when I was waiting tables and a couple of gang bangers came in. One ordered a hamburger, I asked him how he wanted it cooked, and he responded "However the **** you cook it." Medium.

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          • #20
            Re: End of Watch

            Originally posted by Geoff Alexander View Post
            Finally caught this. Couple of thoughts on it:

            1. WTF with the POV/found footage. It didn't work. In fact, it pretty much sucked. The only decent piece of it was the dash cam stuff, the rest of it, in particular the first person shooter and reverse of that stuff was so ****ing lame. It felt like they started shooting the movie without a real production plan on how to execute that element and just stuck with it anyway.

            2. David Ayer got a "do over" for Harsh Times, because he wrote Training Day, and all three of these movies were 80% the same. I find it amazing that the guy has done three movies with so many shared elements. I am VERY curious to see what he does with the tank movie, he's going to have to prove that he's a director to be reckoned with on this one.

            3. What an amazing contradiction of highly watchable and completely stock moments and ideas. The plot line was incredibly thin, next to non-existent. I get that it was intended to be more a character study than a narrative, but this one was neither fish nor fowl, and IMO they tried to cover their bases in terms of commerciality at the expense of doing something that could have been more experimental and more interesting.

            4. Great, great, character moments. When he's good, he's freaking great.

            5. I LOVE what he does with L.A. as a character. This dude makes full use of the world of L.A. in such a believable way, the look, the feel the sounds. I grew up in L.A., I don't know if anyone else out there gets it as right as he does.

            6. Possibly the most hysterical exchange of dialog in history. "Why do they call you Big Evil?" "It's because my evil...is so big." I don't even know what to say about this one. Reminds of a time when I was waiting tables and a couple of gang bangers came in. One ordered a hamburger, I asked him how he wanted it cooked, and he responded "However the **** you cook it." Medium.
            I agree with all these points. Ayer needs to show us something outside of LA. I'm very interested in the Tank movie. It's gonna cost 100 million or more, I want to see what he can do outside his comfort zone of LA.

            Ayer is great at finding those endearing character moments. I will say that.

            And Training Day is by far the superior movie. No one should be comparing this to Training Day.

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            • #21
              Re: End of Watch

              He basically tried making SOUTHLAND: THE MOVIE. Everything he did in END OF WATCH was done 100x better on the show, minus the found footage. That said, I did enjoy the movie and was entertained most of the time.

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              • #22
                Re: End of Watch

                Well, for the "tank movie," he could find a lot of inspiration here. . . .

                http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1018069-sahara/

                . . . . and here . . .

                http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lebanon-2010/

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                • #23
                  Re: End of Watch

                  Compared to the 5-star achievement of TRAINING DAY, END OF WATCH had a lot of serious problems. I was never really convinced by the found footage aspect. The characters weren't strong enough to carry my interest through an entire movie. The antags were laughable.

                  *SPOILERZ*

                  The set-up and second act were full of the "typical" jive. Typical cop talk. Typical husband-and-wife talk. Typical typical. Yet you could feel the strings drawing these guys to their doom, which gave the typical stuff added depth, but also left you feeling like something, some twist, some revelation, was lurking in the wings, and never arrived. When only one of the cops was killed -- and at that the unexpected one -- it was too little too late.

                  The movie was worth seeing. I gave it four stars. Some excellent acting, etc. But the gulf between a five-star unforgettable movie like TRAINING DAY, and END OF WATCH, is as big as that between a wretched vanity production like AFTER EARTH, and END OF WATCH itself.
                  Last edited by Max Otto Schrenck; 06-06-2013, 04:10 PM.

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