End Of Watch - Review

End of Watch
(2012)
Police/Crime Drama
1 hr. 49 min.

Rated: R Strong violence, disturbing images, pervasive language including sexual references, and some drug use.
Grade: B- 

Director: David Ayer
Writer: David Ayer
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña and Anna Kendrick | See full cast and crew

A powerful story of family, friendship, love, honor and courage, End of Watch follows Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, two young Los Angeles police officers, Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, as they patrol the meanest streets of south central Los Angeles. The action unfolds primarily via footage from the handheld HD cameras of the police officers, gang members, surveillance cameras, and citizens caught in the line of fire to create a portrait of the city's most dangerous corners, the cops who risk their lives there every day, and the price they and their families are forced to pay.

End Of Watch was made on a relatively small budget of $7 million and in 19 days it has earned nearly five times that much at just shy of $34 million. When I saw it there were only about six of us in the theater. It was difficult for me to sit through this film. The very first word of the film is an F-bomb and the bombardment continues incessantly throughout the entire movie. In many scenes it is used every second word and I'm not exaggerating. It appears the director thinks that this is necessary in order to portray authenticity and realism. Every actor with any dialogue in this film is required to use the F word, including scenes involving toddlers and young children. The dialogue is riddled with crude, rude and lewd profanities, much of it centering on extremely vulgar sexual references.

The inference by writer/director David Ayer, I assume, that this is the norm, that all L.A. cops talk like this. The police officers' language is only slightly less egregious than that of the human scum that are represented by the gangbanging Bloods and the Curbside Locotes (affiliates of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel). I don't know if this is an accurate portrayal of the average member of the LAPD or not. I hope not. I'd like to think that our men and women in blue have higher morals than what is presented here, furthermore in my opinion, the film could have been made very effectively without all the 'gutter talk' and it would have been a more engaging story without that distraction. Instead it was so irritating and annoying that it almost drove me from the theater.

Another huge distraction distraction for me is the 'found footage' camera technique. That Blair Witch Project (1999) hand held shaky camera annoyance. I really hate this gimmicky, cheap film making technique, a little goes a very long way. There is a very fine line before it becomes an aggravation and little more than audience torture.

On the plus side, the lead performances, by Jake Gyllenhaal as Brian Taylor and Michael Peña as Mike Zavala are really quite good. They exhibit excellent chemistry as partners in their black and white 'street beat' cruiser, where they spend the majority of their time bantering back and forth about philosophy, bravado, loyalty, dating and sexual advice, and how great it is to have a good paying job that didn't require a college degree and a few other topics. They have a sort of brotherly 'bromance' going on ...they reiterate how much they love each other and how they would both take a bullet for the other. Those promises will be put to the test.

All the other characters, their fellow cops, their romantic interests, the criminals and victims ate merely window dressing. Anna Kendrick as Janet, Brian's girlfriend, is quite a contrast from her followup role of Beca, the lead role in Pitch Perfect. (buy the music here)

There is really not much of a plot going on here. No mystery or crime to solve. There isn't a singular 'bad guy' that they are out to take down. It's more like a high intensity, gritty 'COPS' ride-along episode. The calls they go on are varied, but they are all horribly negative or gruesome in nature, involving vile, low-life ghetto dwellers and gang-bangers with one exception, a house fire where their actions win them citations for risking their lives to save some children. They prowl the seediest side of Los Angeles, the film is like a 1 hr. 49 min. Public Service Announcement on why you whould never want to live L.A. It's not all action, there is paperwork, and a lot of just standing around and waiting, 'Police work is all about comfortable shoes', opines Mike. They are young, adrenaline junkies and love to pick on each other and prank their fellow officers.

In the credits, End Of Watch is dedicated to the brave men and women of law enforcement everywhere who put their lives on the line every day to protect and serve us...sadly, as I see it, the End Of Watch presents them in a somewhat negative light, as bitter, disillusioned, foulmouthed, crude, hard, vulgar, amoral and trigger happy heathens.

If an 1 hr. 49 min. of very vulgar profanity - start to finish - is something that you would find grating or offensive, I would recommend that you stay home or see something else. If you decide to wait for a sanitized version on DVD, you will be waiting for a silent movie, once all the 'bleeps' have been removed. As for myself, I would never subject myself to sit through this film a second time. 

If you would like to read the complete storyline of the film, click this link:

 Spoiler Alert

(Plot for - End Of Watch)

Via Wikipedia

Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal          Michael Peña

Brian Taylor                        Mike Zavala

Anna Kendrick           Natalie Martinez

Janet                                    Gabby

 Frank Grillo            David Harbour        America Ferrera

Sarge                        Van Hauser                        Orozco

Pitch Perfect - Review

Pitch Perfect
(2012)
Comedy | Music
112 Min.

Rated: PG-13
Grade: B+

Director: Jason Moore
Writers: Kay Cannon (screenplay), Mickey Rapkin (book)
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and Rebel Wilson | See full cast and crew

The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is that girl who'd rather listen to what's coming out of her headphones than what's coming out of you. Arriving at her new college, she finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together, in the new out-loud comedy Pitch Perfect. When Beca takes this acoustic singing group out of their world of traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of the cutthroat world of college a cappella. This could wind up either the coolest thing they'll ever do or the most insane, and it will probably be a little of both. -- (C) Universal

Pitch Perfect is Aca- Awesome!

This film is based on Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction novel Pitch Perfect.(buy it here) Rapkin, senior editor at GQ magazine, spent a season covering competitive collegiate a cappella. He followed the groups from Tufts University, the University of Oregon, and the University of Virginia, writing about the singing, groupies, partying and rivalries.

Pitch Perfect is lots of fun, irreverent, but fun. Pretty much nothing worse that you might see on regular broadcast TV. Anna Kendrick heads up the cast as Beca. She is good but for me Rebel Wilson steals a great deal of the show. She, with her self deprecating humor, is delightful, endearing and funny. Vocally the entire cast is superb. There are a lot of suggestive lyrics and dance moves (much like you would see on the TV show, Glee, or pretty much any rock or pop concert). Speaking of the obvious Glee comparisons, at least these actors look fairly close to the age they are portraying, as opposed to the 30-somethings on Glee pretending to be High School students. The popularity of Glee has made possible the the success of a new mo  Both shows showcase excellent singers and dancing. An added plus for Pitch Perfect is that you are not pounded over the head with the message that gays are morally and ethically superior as is the case in almost every episode of Glee.)

Pitch Perfect as a musical comedy is formulaic, with all the elements of dealing with familial conflicts, trying to fit in at college, dealing with roommates, first loves and just finding your place in the world and in life in general. Formulas are used because an original story is a pretty rare bird indeed. Formulaic in and of itself is not a bad thing but it can bog down a book, play or movie. In the case of Pitch Perfect...who cares if it's formula? The formula works. 

Pitch Perfect escapes the snare with the novel approach it takes on the formula, even though you know where the film is headed and think you know how it will end, because of the performances and the excellent singing you don't really mind knowing the outcome but are satisfied to simply enjoy the ride all the way to the end of the line. We all know how Romeo and Juliet ends and how the characters get to that end, but that doesn't mean that Frano Zeffirelli couldn't make an intriguing film about it (and no, I'm not saying that Pitch Perfect is in the same literary league as Romeo and Juliet). Incidentally, I have worked with Sir. Fanco Zeffirelli on two occasions once at the Met and once on screen, but that's another story for another time.

Cast

Anna Kendrick            Skylar Astin

Beca                                     Jesse

 

Brittany Snow             Anna Camp

Chloe                               Aubrey

Rebel Wilson          Adam DeVine

Fat Amy                        Bumper

It is pretty amazing the music that can be made by just the voice alone.

ParaNorman - Review

ParaNorman

Animation | Adventure | Comedy
92 min

Rated PG

Directors: Chris Butler, Sam Fell

Writer: Chris Butler

Stars: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick and Christopher Mintz-Plasse | See full cast and crew
 

Grade: B-

A misunderstood boy, takes on ghosts, zombies and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse.

Honestly, I had trouble staying awake during ParaNorman. I'm not sure if it was the film itself or the negative experience at the theater. I went with a group of my family including some children. The only showing available for the time we wanted to go was in 3D. However, a few minutes into the film I realized that the movie was not in 3D at all (To their credit the theater did compensate us for the error). Irritation increased due to popcorn that was stale and tasteless and the drinks tasted like plastic. Further adding to the distractions, the film was projected onto a screen that was too small causing it to spill over onto the curtains on the two sides of the screen. The sum of these distractions equaled an all together unpleasant experience.

That said...the animation was excellent, the characterizations were certainly satisfactory, the script somewhat original, but still I found myself drifting off so I can't really say it was riveting. As I have said previously, I am not a big fan of the recent wave of animated features. Pirates: Band of Misfits was absolutely appalling, truly boring and humorless. Ice Age: Continental Drift, and Brave both had their moments but overall were tedious, but I digress, this is about  ParaNorman. It too had some moments but I found the political correctness overtones intrusive and annoying. I almost felt like I was being lectured by a Human Secularist elementary school teacher, wondering when she was going to slip in a 'life lesson' about bullying, self esteem and man-made global warming. (Just how does one develop self esteem while being blamed for causing of the destruction of the planet, but I digress again.) And of course they have to sneak in a gay character twist for the children's sake. Nevertheless, the children that accompanied me seemed to enjoy ParaNorman, but like me, the adults...eh, not so much.

Spoiler Alert

If you are interested enough to see the film and don't want to know how it ends...then don't read any further

The Plot

In the small New England town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts, a boy named Norman Babcock is able to speak with the dead, including his late grandmother, and various other ghosts in town. Unfortunately, almost no one among the living believes his ability is genuine and he is ostracized by his family while being ridiculed and bullied by most of his peers for his seemingly strange abilities.

However, Norman makes a friend with Neil Downe, an eccentric fat boy who is bullied himself and finds Norman's earnest admission as a medium an intriguing part of a kindred spirit. During rehearsal of a school play commemorating the town's witch execution of 300 years ago, Norman has a harrowing vision of the town's past and being pursued as a witch by the town's citizenry. Afterward, the boys are confronted by Norman's estranged and seemingly deranged uncle, Mr. Prenderghast, who tells his nephew that vision is a sign that he soon must take up his regular ritual to protect the town.

Norman refuses to take him seriously, but soon has another vision during the school play, creating a public spectacle of himself which leads to his embarrassed parents grounding him. Now completely despondent and isolated, Norman is confronted by the ghost of the recently deceased Prenderghast in the washroom who tells him that the ritual must be performed with a special book before sundown that day, before departing for the afterlife. After some consideration, Norman sets off to Prenderghast's residence to retrieve the book. Believing that Neil would not truly understand his situation, he drives him away. He arrives at the graves of the town's ancestors, including Judge Hopkins who were supposedly cursed by the witch they condemned, but finds the book is merely a collection of fairy tales.

Before Norman can ponder the situation, Alvin, a bully who overheard Norman's encounter in the washroom, intrudes and interferes with the reading until after sundown. With that, a ghostly storm resembling the witch appears in the air while the cursed dead arise and pursue the boys until they meet Norman's sister, Courtney, Neil and his own brother, Mitch, who have come to retrieve Norman. Together, the kids are relentlessly pursued by the zombies into town, but Norman manages to contact a classmate who tells them to access the Town Hall's archives for the location of the witch's unmarked grave.
As the kids make their way to the Town Hall, the zombies eventually lose them and find themselves confused by modern society and then are beset by the citizenry who attack them en masse. During the riot, the kids break into the archives but cannot find any information they need. As the mob moves to attack Town Hall, Norman in frustration temporarily drives away his companions only for them to be trapped by the mob. However, the Witch storm appears and Norman climbs the Hall's tower to desperately attempt to read the book to stop her, but the witch blasts it with lightning and causes him to fall back down into the archives.
Unconscious, Norman has a dream where he learns that the witch was actually Agatha Prenderghast, an innocent little girl of his age who was also a medium, unjustly condemned by the town's superstitious and frightened elite who were then cursed by Agatha as she was taken for execution. After awakening, Norman encounters the zombies and realizes that all they wanted was to speak with him to ensure he would take up the ritual to minimize the harm of the terrible mistake they made with Agatha. However, Norman decides that this gesture is not enough and resolves to find Agatha's ghost to arrive at a permanent solution.
Norman attempts to help the zombies slip away to have them guide him to Agatha's grave, but are cornered by the mob. However, Courtney, who has come to realize her brother's true abilities, heroism and task, confronts the crowd and convinces them to back off. As the witch storm rages ever more destructively, Judge Hopkins guides Norman's family to the grave in a forest. Unfortunately, Agatha's magic separates Norman from the others and he must reach the grave on his own.

Norman finds the grave, and soon confronted by the vengeful spirit of Agatha, interacting with her in the spirit dimension. She tries to drive him away, but Norman resolutely holds his ground, telling her that he understands how she feels as a outcast. As she struggles to drive him away, Norman endures her assault and eventually convinces her that despite her legitimate grievance, her thirst for vengeance is accomplishing nothing but inflicting more pain and persuades her to stop. Norman tries to convince her that even in the darkest times, there must have been someone who was kind to her. Focusing only on the tragedies and forgetting the good things in her life is what reduced her to a malevolent force devoid of her true identity.
Eventually, the girl, nicknamed Aggie, calms down at Norman's eloquence, recalling her true personality and happy memories with her mother. She is able to find a measure of peace, knowing that she is not alone and one person in the town understands her, allowing her to let go and move on to the afterlife. At that resolution, the storm dissipates, and she and the zombies all peacefully fade away. As day breaks, the town cleans up and regards Norman as a hero even when the outside media tries to explain the disturbance as merely a powerful storm. Norman, realizing that he too, should stop focusing on his memories of being ostracized and pushing others away, accepts Neil's companionship. At the end, Norman watches a horror film with the ghost of his Grandmother again, and his family eagerly joins him. (from~Wikipedia)

Making a stop motion movie.

Zombies

This Little Light of Mine

Just get through it.

Cast

 Kodi Smit-McPhee            Tucker Albrizzi

 Norman Babcock               Neil Downe

 Casey Affleck            Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Mitch                               Alvin

John Goodman                Anna Kendrick

Mr. Prenderghast               Courtney 

 Elaine Stritch

 Grandma