Movie #26 - End of Watch

This movie is no longer out due to my slackness, but you may find this review handy for the DVD store!

End of Watch is a pretty decent action/cop thriller, from the bloke who did cop movies like Training Day, Street Kings and Dark Blue.  To give you fair warning though, this movie has a lot of 'shaky cam' because there is a bit of a 'gimmick' used that one of the cops is making a doco for film school.  Do not watch if you hate shaky cam.

End of Watch follows two LA cops who are lucky or unlucky enough to be assigned to the extremely mean streets of South Central LA.  The two cops are single white male Brian (Jake Gyllenhaal) and married family guy from Hispanic background Mike (Michael Pena).  While normally this scenario would be an odd couple not getting along, played for laughs situation, the movie has them as best friends whose strong bond and rapport is the only thing that gets them through the hellish scenarios they face at work.  This kicks off with a car chase resulting in a gun fight where the crims are taken down by our pair who survive an internal review to get straight back on street patrol.  After which a rather over-the-top series of further adventures occur which turns our guys into saints but makes them a target for the bad guys.  And when the sh*t gets serious, boy does it get SERIOUS.

The movie definitely has an ultra-realistic feel from the large amount of hand-held camera shots and the use of some non-actors for the baddies who may or may not have some real-life experience of being a gun-toting foul-mouthed gang member in South Central LA.  Seriously, this film has a lot of swearing and really embraces the street slang to continue the 'real' feel (even though you can't always understand exactly what they are referring to).  The downsides are that it can be quite depressing, and I felt that there were just too many 'good deeds' by two individuals - this would be more realistic if it happened to about 5 people rather than just two.    Also the 'found footage' idea is pretty dumb when parts of the movie are following the bad guys inside their car or parties.

The upside of the movie are the strong writing by David Ayers and performances by Jake and Michael.  The friendship between these 2 guys is extremely truthful and the scenes of them trading insults, stories and jokes in the patrol car and sharing life's big moments are needed to lighten the heavy mood and provide some good laughs. 

I left this movie feeling like I'd been punched in the face but not unhappy about it.  Solid and quite thrilling in places.