Review of End of Watch (2012) by Kevin P — 14 Sep 2018

Strengths: If you're going to do a movie that completely focuses on the relationship between two friends, you must make sure they're casted right. Jake Gyllenhaal (Brian Taylor) and Michael Pena (Miguel Zavala) were great together. They were fun in almost every scene and you genuinely felt like they were best friends. Their chemistry was the star of the film. Anna Kendrick (Janet Taylor) was great as always, while Natalie Martinez (Gabby Zavala) was a strong supporting character. Director David Ayer gets how to do cop movies and this is some of his best work. Opting to have some of the scenes shot from Go Pro style cameras being used by the officers made for a unique experience. The film is ripe with tense and emotional moments all throughout. It's one of the more memorable police dramas I can ever recall. The closing scene is unforgettable and blew me away, taking turns I never expected or saw coming.

Weaknesses: As cool as I felt the handheld camera stuff worked in some cases, it felt overused. There were times we saw it when it wasn't really needed. Though the movie doesn't even reach two hours, a handful of scenes feel like they're just there to fill time. As great as the closing action scene is, the way the movie cuts back for the very final scene feels odd. It just shows a moment of friendship between Brian and Miguel. It's nice, but it doesn't add much to the characters or their relationship and seems like a lesser note to finish it on.

Overall: The movie ends on a weird note and has some moments that don't quite click. That still doesn't keep it from being a great film. The two leads worked extremely well together and there were so many emotional moments that you can't help but be captivated.