One of the best cop films I've ever seen and surprisingly one of the most sincere dramas of the year. Gyllenhaal's and Pena's chemistry is brilliant and the dialogue and plot are extremely engaging. The hand-held camera approach works really well in some scenes, but overall is aggravatingly distracting and annoying during many of the night sequences. It's honestly frustrating how off-putting the cinematography is at times because it could have been a much better experience if just shot regularly. Still, highly recommended.

A-

This is an exciting and often moving police drama from the writer of Training Day. In fact, it often plays as a companion piece to Training Day; once again, the focus is on two men in a car and their interaction, except here they are long-term friends and partners. Hailed as the first "found-footage" police movie, the use of the conceit is a bit strange: the characters use cameras to document their day-to-day experience policing South Los Angeles, but at times it is hard to tell whether the image before us is theirs or just anxious/close/hand-held in the usual way of the modern action film. Also, the film reaches a natural and wrenching ending, and then decides to last five extraneous minutes longer, softening the impact. Otherwise, though, End of Watch is a hit. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are a dynamite duo. Time is devoted to subtle, often humorous scenes of character development, so we are invested once the gunfire roars and the chasing begins. And those action sequences are outstanding, as suspenseful as they are unflinching.

B+

Loved this.

Yeah. This was a lot of fun. Cemented Jake Gyllenhaal as one of our better actors these days.

Could've done without the ending; did not expect him to survive the gazillion AK-47 shots, and I'm not sure it matters that he did.

The ending is really embarrassing (even before the 'flashback' scene that awkwardly tried to end the movie on a happy note), and the found footage element is distracting and doesn't add much. But hey, Gyllenhaal and Pena have great chemistry.

END OF WATCH

Came back to theatres so I got to use my MP card. Ahh. Glad I saw this. I thought it was excellent and very entertaining. It was like cops with big name actors. The film did have me wondering where it was going in the middle because it seemed to flatline on the action yet still have action and the story seemed to get stuck as well, however, I was more than pleased with how it played out in the end. Maybe I'm a bit sappy but I haven't cried at a film for quite some time but this one got me and that sealed it for me. Then it lifts you back up if only for a moment so you aren't left in a depressed state. Wonderful. I thought the acting by all involved was very well done. The story kept my attention. The film also leaves you with a moment of appreciation for the difficult job that police officers choose to do and to remember to have that respect for them.

Grade - A

Of course the white guy lives and the Latino dies. Still, this is pretty effective filmmaking, aided by clever use of handheld camerawork and the found-footage concept.

Another 2012 movie I did not nearly expect to love as much as I did. The chemistry between Pena/Gyllenhaal was perfect. I was on the edge of my seat the last 20 minutes and was devastated once Pena died. What a great movie.

This easily has one of the saddest endings of any movie in 2012. It definitely made me cry, which was unexpected.

Anyways, this movie is excellent. Everyone gives fantastic performances and it has a gritty realism to it that isn't usually present in films of this type. One of last year's most underrated films. A-

Excellent! Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena are superb and have great chemistry together. I found their friendship very believable.

One minor quibble, and I'm going to sound like a total prude for saying this, but there could have been less swearing. It's literally like every other word. It's a great movie and I would have had my parents watch it if it weren't for this. I know they couldn't get past the excessive use of the F-word.

8/10 (A-)

Pretty damn good. The two major problems that keep this from being one of the year's best though is that it is incredibly predictable (minus one final outcome that feels like a reshoot) and the conceit of the camera and the found footage angle.

The movie presents that Gyllenhaal's character is filming everything for a class (would've been nice to have seen this class once, but that's a minor quibble). He hooks up two cameras to his vest along with his partners. He also uses a handheld camera. If I had to guess, half of the movie is told from these cameras. There's also a brief scene with an infrared camera that is clearly shown to be evidence from another larger operation that takes place within the world of the film (we never see it, and we never have to). That was a nice touch.

My question is, who is filming the other half? There's no explanation given. Who is supposedly filming the scenes where Kendrick and Gyllenhaal get intimate? Who is filming when Gyllenhaal and Pena are talking with one another that is clearly not filmed with their cameras? The film cheats, and I say that as both a negative and a positive. I prefer that the film wasn't strictly found footage. I find that entire genre to be pretty worn out at this point. But there has to be a reason given within the film as to why these other shots exist, and there isn't any. On this crucial front the film is lazy and that's unacceptable.

Those problems aside, if you're looking for a gritty and ultra-realistic cop drama, then look no further. Gyllenhaal and Pena blend seamlessly into their environment and make you quickly forget that they're anything but the real deal.

***½ (B+)

It's good, but I didn't love it as much as everybody else surprisingly. Both Pena and Gyllenhaal are fantastic, but the movie also has a few too many slow parts IMO were I was kind of sucked out of it. Also, the shaky cam/found footage stuff was really unnecessary here. The movie probably would have been even better without it.

Though it's nothing special, End of Watch is an enjoyable little episodic cop movie thanks to the two leads.


4 out of 5.

End of Watch

An awesome film. David Ayer has really improved over Harsh Times and Street Kings, and this is looking very good for his next film, Ten, starring Schwarzenegger. I cannot wait.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives the performance of his career, a very underrated actor for sure. Anna Kendrick did a great job too. The story was very good, and unique in its own way. Originally filmed, although not totally plausible all of the time. The set-up scene at the end was absolutely riveting, and when Mike (Michael Peña) was gunned down, I just felt so much sorrow and sadness for them both (I originally thought that both of them were dead). And then at the funeral when I saw Bryan hadn't been killed; such elation. If a film can do that to someone, then it's a job well done.

The entire film builds up the characters' charm and personality, and I loved those guys, so to see them get gunned down and set-up like that was intense and shocking. I love this film because it shows "first hand" what the LAPD goes through, the types of shit and stuff that can lead to other problems. But the main thing that makes this such a spectacular film is the use of music that correctly aligns itself to the atmoshpere of the film. Very well done on the choices of music.

Regarding the "found footage" problems people had with it, well, in my opinion, the film never said that 100% of it was meant to be shown from Bryan's footage. To make more of a film out of it, they included sections that were telling a story, because, quite frankly, you're never going to be able to tell a story with found footage, just segments, and so the other parts (Kendrick and Gyllenhaal getting intimate etc.) were filled in by the film crew. I was fine with this. I was under no illusion that I was watching a movie the whole time.

A-

I mostly liked this movie. Ayer's gritty style makes feel grounded and showed exactly why cops are so fucking scared all the time. Gylenhaal is incredible as usual and Pena matches him. Great Bro chemistry between the two.

Two big issues though:

1) I didn't mind the found footage gimmick when it was just Jake doing his "film project" but what was the point of this style if they were just gonna shift to whatever perspective they needed anyways? I'm so glad the Assassin Gang also happened to be filming these exact same events!!!!! Seems like it wanted to be Cops the show when it started, but ended just using it to explain away the low-budgetness of everything.

2) How did Jake not die at the end? They fired like 100 bullets into Michael Pena. You're telling me that not one of those went astray and hit Jake too? Bullshit. This was called End of Watch and both of them should have died. Such a Cop Out.

It was still mostly good though.

B-