Lots of good reviews, high rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a sound premise - freelance cameraman follows the police sirens around LA and sells gory footage of shootings, car-jackings and accidents to a local TV station that needs to up its ratings against the competition.
There's the odd slice of dark comedy in the script, maybe four or five very funny moments. But they sit oddly with the film's obvious intent to question the morality of the media and the people who lust for, and gawp at, catastrophic footage. Jake Gyllenhaal's character is so odious, right from the start and all the way through, that he's a paper thin psychotic caricature, and so you find yourself feeling uncomfortable laughing at his lines. His human sidekick Rick - the homeless intern he has in an economic and emotional stranglehold - is his stereotypical opposite, a voice of sanity, but no more imaginative or individual a creation for having a conscience.
The film is empty - it's contrived, predictable, melodramatic, beyond credible, and not anywhere near as shocking or controversial as it would love to be. It's not even contemporary - who watches local TV news nowadays for local stories? We're online for the latest updates, dude. A huge disappointment after all the plaudits.
There's the odd slice of dark comedy in the script, maybe four or five very funny moments. But they sit oddly with the film's obvious intent to question the morality of the media and the people who lust for, and gawp at, catastrophic footage. Jake Gyllenhaal's character is so odious, right from the start and all the way through, that he's a paper thin psychotic caricature, and so you find yourself feeling uncomfortable laughing at his lines. His human sidekick Rick - the homeless intern he has in an economic and emotional stranglehold - is his stereotypical opposite, a voice of sanity, but no more imaginative or individual a creation for having a conscience.
The film is empty - it's contrived, predictable, melodramatic, beyond credible, and not anywhere near as shocking or controversial as it would love to be. It's not even contemporary - who watches local TV news nowadays for local stories? We're online for the latest updates, dude. A huge disappointment after all the plaudits.
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