David Ayer Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of David Ayer-whose latest project "A Working Man" releases in theaters tomorrow. 

David Ayer's Filmography Ranked:

9.Harsh Times (C)

8.Bright (B-)

7.Fury (B-)

6.The Tax Collector (B-)

5.Suicide Squad (B-)

4.Sabotage (B)

3.The Beekeeper (B)

2.Street Kings (B)

1.End of Watch (A)

Top Dog: End of Watch (2012)

Ironically, the only time Ayer has made a movie where the cops are actually good people also happened to be the only time he directed a really great movie. While End of Watch doesn't completely remove itself from the LA gang culture that has been at the forefront of the majority of his work from Training Day through the present day, Ayer really focuses on character work for the first time since Training Day with his depiction of the special bond that exists between a pair of longtime LAPD partners (Jake Gylenhaal, Michael Pena-both excellent) and how unexpectedly finding contraband during a routine traffic stop suddenly puts them in the crosshairs of some really dangerous people. Centering this story around the brotherly love these two men have for each other provides this raw, gritty action flick with a deep emotional connection to the characters that movies like this don't tend to have, which makes the inevitable tragic ending hit really hard.     

Bottom Feeder: Harsh Times (2006)

As tends to be the case when he shows up in something, Christian Bale does riveting work as a veteran battling PTSD who turns to a life of crime after struggling to find an honest job upon returning home. It's a shame that everything else around him in Harsh Times kind of sucks. Ayer's handling of mental illness is pretty clumsy and since this was his first movie as a director, the filmmaking isn't kinetic enough to overcome the treasure trove of LA hood film cliches that have become his calling card post-Training Day.    

Most Underrated: Street Kings (2008)

Street Kings is very much a bread-and-butter Ayer affair as it deals with crooked cops and how they're just as, if not more dangerous than the criminals that they're bringing to "justice". What elevates it above the majority of his other films that have tackled similar subject matter is some really terrific performances headlined by Keanu Reeves in a complete off-type role as an immoral, short-tempered cop with a lengthy history of killing perps who stumbles upon a sinister conspiracy within the LAPD after his ex-partner (Terry Crews) is executed in public shortly after he began talking to an internal affairs officer (Hugh Laurie) about his past conduct, some really tense shootouts and an old school noir sensibility of bad vs. badder that particularly shines through in the final moments where it eschews a clean "the villains have been defeated moment" for something that's disarmingly bleak and quite frankly, probably true to the world of real life policing.          

Most Overrated: Fury (2014)

More by-the-numbers "war is hell" movie than a straight-up bad one, Fury struggles to establish any sort of meaningful emotional attachment to its tank crew protagonists (Brad Pitt, Michael Pena, Shia LaBouef, Jon Bernthal, Logan Lerman) or deliver much of anything compelling outside of the excellent combat sequences that keep this thing from totally collapsing.