End of Watch 2012

This is a really great movie, with some disturbing imagery. David Ayer wanted to capture the everyday life of police officers in one of the most criminal districts: South Central Los Angeles, in a way that hadn't been done before; of course there are many movies that play in South Central Los Angeles, such as Colors, Boyz N the Hood, South Central, or Training Day, and especially compared to Colors you can find a number of similarities. Still, Ayer makes good on his promise: Similar to Colors we get a movie that in the first half seems totally random, we follow two around two cops, experiencing a lot of ugly stuff and soon some of these events lead to bigger events that unfold dramatically.

Different to Colors, however, Ayer focuses on the two cops. These are both young and in the beginning of their careers, and as two young guys their heads are full of shit, while their hearts are still in the right place. Even though being highly trained and professional when it comes to the job, they fool around a lot, and often just push their damn luck. They seem different at the beginning, yet they call each other brothers and you soon get to know why: Being in a car with each other nearly 8hrs a day makes for a really special friendship. In the Interviews Peña says that a third of the movie plays in the car, and I don't feel like that's an over-exaggeration. What's also interesting about this movie is, that for probably half of the movie "found footage" like shots where used. Gyllenhaals character "Brian Taylor" is filming his everyday for a class project, and both carries a camcorder with him as well as having his partner and himself wearing body cams on their shirts. Besides we often also get "ego perspective", especially when they move in somewhere with weapons drawn. Other great "found footage" like shots include cameras mounted on long weapons filming towards the actors, dashbord cams, etc.

These are however mixed with real camera work, and different to most found footage horror movies they are not used as long single shots, but all these different approaches are edited together to form great scenes. The pacing switches from slow scenes that are mostly driven by dialogue or off-duty scenes that seem mundane (e.g. the day that Brian has off with his girlfriend and has a special date planned from which we only get to see the drive with both of them singing to music playing on the radio), but that in their very special ways convey so much emotions, that makes you really love all of these characters, with all their quirks and idiosyncrasies. In contrast we get these highly thrilling on-duty scenes that are either packed with suspense or with fast pace action. Acting-wise we get a number of high ranking actors such as Anna Kendrick, Maurice Compte, Frank Grillo or David Harbour who just play small supporting roles with minimal screen time. The main focus lies on Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, and both are so good and excellent in their roles that you cannot imagine this movie with any other actor in their place.

So all in all this is a shocking movie with a - to me - really unexpected ending that shocked me. However, I found it could have had an even deeper impact if the ending was slightly different, and I would have loved it if it wasn't for the last scene.

Let me be honest, I went into this film wanting to hate it due to everything that is happening with the police in America at the moment with the current situations with the BLM protests but also in general. But lemme tell you now if you are like me and are not a big fan of the police, do not write this film off as this is one of the best films I have ever seen in regards to the police and I will be recommending it to anyone.

Every single cast member acts amazingly in this film with both Michael Pena (Mike Zavala) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Brian Taylor) giving some of their career-best performances as their portrayal of these two young cops with young families felt super realistic and though you only get to see a little bit of their personal life it is enough to make you care about these characters, it also doesn't portray the police as angels or even heroes as it does show that they have got a good side and bad side throughout the film with me in the first few moments of the film wanting to turn it off because of how unlikable they came off but please keep watching as these two actors perfectly build these characters. Also, really need to give a shoutout to both Frank Grillo (Sarge) who really need to be in better films because he is an awesome actor and he is great in this, but also David Harbour (Van Hauser) who portrays the cop that you can tell probably started off like the main characters but has had so much s**t happen to him in the LAPD that he is just done with everything and it felt believable.

As for the action, it really is top-notch as you feel the intensity throughout each if those scenes and I'd say its unique filming style is the reason I found the action so unique. David Ayer is a director who can be really hit or miss with Fury being a giant hit and The Tax Collector being one of the worst films I have seen, but this definitely shows me that this guy is a great director and a great writer who just needs a good subject to be involved with as I will say that anyone who likes Training Day (written by David Ayer) will love this film and dare I say it this film has a lot more emotion than that but not as good.

Definitely recommend this one to everyone as it is a future classic and I understand the topic of Police at the moment is a very sensitive (rightfully so) subject, but this is one of the most realistic depictions of Police I have ever seen in a film.

This is just pure nonsense cop-a-ganda. It's the Pearl Harbor of cop movies. It's a long Pena and Gyllenhaal bromance, where they constantly espouse their love for one another in hushed tones. It's a long line of giant busts for 2 patrol cops that could be movies of their own (crackheads with babies taped up on the closet, rich cartel cowboy pull overs, cartel mass graveyards, and on and on and on with the heroes easily dispensing of the villains and moving on to the next huge bust that comes from "checking out that scene again" or "a random welfare check". Not to mention the cartoonish Mexican gangster arch villains who stab people in the eye with kitchen knives (the victim talked his way through this entire thing by the way, with a knife in his head) that mostly just scream that they have no fear and have names like "Big Evil". This is some of the most sanctimonious trite ever put to screen. Completely shocking that this is by the same person who made a film as good and real and raw as Training Day.

EDIT: I forgot the fore-shadowing. At Gyllenhaal's wedding, there's a guy who looks like an old version of him, talking about how his partner took a bullet that was meant for him even though his buddy was great and he was just a piece of sh*t. This, after spending whole movie calling Pena great and "aw shucks" calling Gyllenhaal a piece of sh*t, even as soon as the next scene. Boy, I wonder how the movie is going to end...