an Oscar?, what were they thinking ?

Rating: 5/10 (20 August 2013)

I think that I have spent too long watching this film so I do not intend to make this take up more than 3 minutes: I like the director, I love the lead actors, I love the genre, and I have been advised by many to watch this accordingly. But This film was incredibly dull, offensive in its blandness, and predictable and more than anything else what surprised me it has absolutely no intelligence on any level at all. Gee when I think what we got from for example 'the inside man'. Now there was a film: smart, slick, engaging, unpredictable, characters I could believe, and the feel of New York. This movie at most may offer a slice of the dark side of corruption in LA told by a relatively convincing palette of actors but there were far too many problems here that sank this movie for me: Denzel Washington was too self-conscious in many places, Ethan Hawke was oddly more convincing than Washington all around. This emphasis on ''nothing is as it seems'' was played out for me by the first 40 minutes when there just seemed to be no plot other than here is a typical ''non typical'' training day: whatever!!! It was insulting! Surely this film cannot grab anybody with any imagination. I'd prefer to watch sly Stallone or Steven Seagal any day if I wanted mindless dross like this, at least those alternatives can be funny or amusing on a certain level. My time is up, or rather its time is up, and I wasted too much time tonight on this already. Happy to kiss this one off guys (btw I rarely make a negative review but I had to let this one out despite the Oscar for Washington), what were they thinking!!! :)
Good luck!