Film

User reviews of this film

• oldmanvegas said...

  Posted on Jun 19 2009 11:33 I watched this last night and was - overall - entertained. The plot has a departed style "lets shoot everyone" theme but regardless as a hard boiled cop keanu delivers - looking just the right side of bloated and downtrodden. I thought the movie was pretty much a chracter piece for keanu with everyone else as peripherals to the story - and it focuses on his flawed attempt at redemption. I thought there were some great performances and good dialogue - as you would expect from ellroy - but as with most cop/action movies cliche was inevitable. I rate it 6.5/10.

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• timom said...

  Posted on Apr 26 2008 18:56 liked it. good action, good storyline, Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker are incredible.

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• usman said...

  Posted on Apr 25 2008 13:39 hanna must see the movie with some fit men -keanu is a fit talented copper -i think women like uniforms -lolz

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• Jon07 said...

  Posted on Apr 21 2008 14:34 Despite what time out scored this film and other reviews, I went on friday night with some mates no knowing what to expect as nothing else decent was on. Great action scenes with a good line up of actors, we all thought it was a good film...tho slightly confusing at points. Finally like the Mustang!

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• Ben said...

  Posted on Apr 19 2008 23:42 Absoloutely unbearable. Its not that its technically poor, or that one small thing annoys me, its just that its so incredibly boring. I left about 10 minutes from the end. Your probably thinking why didnt i want to see what happens. My answer? I didnt care

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• Ross said...

  Posted on Apr 19 2008 11:05 Well worth a look ,keeps you guessing all the way .Sometimes a bit unbeliveable but the wife & I both enjoyed this & would go & see it again.Lots of action & blood also a great twist in the end

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• usman khawaja said...

  Posted on Apr 19 2008 02:58 david ayers in some ways has completed a trilogy of sorts,set in the purgatory of downtomn LA , with training day ,HARSH TIMES and now this rather provocative ,confrontational piece, where the characters all are driven by the lust for power ,right or wrong is only trivial-what prevails is whether you can survive and get away ,that is precisely why whitakers character is both powerful yet flawed as he cannot commit to his ideology and beliefs ,
  tom -keanu reeves-defines a raw brutality which is born out of corrupt injustice and effete judiciary.
  as for keanu he is absolutely superb as the loner ,bitter widower and in some ways desperately tender white man ,who is not afraid to be labelled as WHITE ,In the current world that tenacity to being a racial prototype can be a strength of character ,
  he defines a whimsical disturbed ,methodical man who wakes to an alarm clock and goes directly for his handgun and then for a swig of vodka,his mid-day alcoholic binges is casual but so are the racial taunts he and his handyman endure as white boys ,
  the gratuitious violence is staged well, as in HARSH TIMES ,the sex slave trade in los angeles is sensitively targeted and filty dirty cops rule the roost .
  keanu-ayers make this a palpably fearsome frolic with dead corpses litterring the streets ,toilets and the hills,
  the california sun drenches it all in a bloody haze with the downtown ghettos and the chase on foot through domestic latino quarter is brilliant .
  the 2 wommen ,one a widow and the other toms lover are rudimentary but good ,this is a bad world and as tom says bad only breeds bad in reality .while harsh time was about damaged and lost american youth secondary to the immoral iraqi intervention .this is about home ground and the fact that to eliminate evil ,you have to employ risque tactics bordering onto mendacious immorality-true but who is to decide who is evil and what defines good ,ayers debates this with kanu himself on the borderline as he looks sceptical throughout and disappointed by a sysyem ,which has failed both the public and his individual life ,but tom is a tenacious character and he survives -keanu has matured and grown in the years since the bullock romcom and here he looks delivers ,whitaker has PTOSIS IN HIS LEFT EYE and it distracts , and his pleadings with tom are rather infantile .
  the manhunt is very interesting and also quite harrowing with automatic weapon grillings turning victims into turkey shoot ,but it is violence with a purpose and mr ayers has delivered again ,
  this is not in the league with l.a confidential or HARSH TIMES ,BUT IT DOES HAVE AN ENERGY ,it is rather perfunctory ,primitive and inconclusive and leaves a lot of questions unanswered but it is thought-provoking and ayers is one of the better directors who can deliver in the context of socio-political thriller dramas ,
  yes it is flawed but less so then DEPARTED .there is an almost perverse but humourous episode about racial complaints as tom is assigned to internal affairs -is it surprising it evokes mention of rodney king and almost all complainants are black .
  a rather disturbing look at the melting pot that is america today ,struggling with its own demons in the backdrop of a lost war with looming economic disaster .
  this is a consummate caper with political overtones
  but ayers has delivered stylishly with a very convincing keanu reeves .

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