Slow paced, tacky decisions, poorly constructed, and unresearched,

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2014)

This movie is slow paced and there are many slow long drawn out scenes. the movie would benefit if it moved faster and had different shots & angles and possibly even music in different scenes. personally i feel overall this movie was poorly constructed and would have been much better if worked on by a team of different professionals.
this movie lacks some realism. this movies version of realistic scenes is....so holly-woodish and fake. i mean certain scenes seem to me as an avid-movie buff to be.....as real looking as a fake apple is to hold and touch. and the dialogue and decisions of the characters and their character-build are as sharp as a polished marble.
some things i didn't like: i didn't like the African American actor who played one of the fathers in this movie. i don't like the way he looks, sounds, or that he couldn't play his instrument in the beginning, and i don't like his comments. i would have preferred him to be someone else with different dialogue, and directions.
i don't like how the detective in this movie looks like a frickin ex-con prisoner. when i first saw him i thought he was the antagonist/bad-guy. the detective was made to look this way cause some fool in the production crew thought this was the hot-guy look teens go for and maybe her personal preference for men so she (or he?) made this character look this certain ex-con fashionable way. to me his look and the things he says and does is totally unprofessional. I didn't like how the detective talks to his boss (captain) with disrespect and disdain in his voice as if he is superior to him- the the captain hearing and witnessing this disrespect allowed it and seemed incompetent. this to me seems entirely unresearched and fabricated. in other words it's unrealistic. if a detective talks to his commanding officer in any agency in any town the way this fellow does in this movie he would be looking for a new job quick. yet im supposed to buy that this hipster cool detective can get away with this? why? and his captain is some loser behind a desk? is this a comedy? no. its just badly written because it's unrealistic.
Anyway...the detective is supposed to be some genius of a guy who has solved all six of his cases and the actor who plays him does as good of a job as he can with poor dialogue and direction but unfortunately its not enough to save his poorly constructed decisions. what i mean is- this actor does what he is told to do- and he is told to do some dumb things by the director/writer. otherwise i have no problem with the way he looks or talks to his captain. what i mean is- he is SUPPOSED to be a genius detective but what he actually does and says in this movie opposes his role as a genius because there is nothing highly intelligent about discussing astrological signs in his opening scene, being disrespectful to his boss, and disregarding rules and doing things by the book. nothing he does is really special at all is what i mean.....he has this higher than thou attitude but what we see him do in the movie is new yorker-ish in the bad attitude sense and is common! so he is written and introduced by another character as being "special" but he does nothing special! His actions are rudimentary and unprofessional- that is why i say this movie is poorly constructed and poorly researched!
This movie reminds me of some South Korean thriller movies but are not as fast paced and fun to watch as them. I recommend you watch The Chaser and I Saw the Devil if you liked this junky movie.
The things I liked about this movie: The main characters Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal have great acting skills and presence in this movie. they are likable fellows and i enjoy seeing them in this movie and have an affection for them because of other movies i have seen them in. they practically save this poorly structured and poorly written movie. without them this movie would appear on Lifetime channel as a TV movie as it is poorly made like one.