Review of End of Watch (2012) by Walter M — 28 Jul 2014

While I admittedly have never been a fan of found footage movies, "End of Watch" definitely proves its potential in its following two police officers, Brian Taylor(Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala(Michael Pena), on patrol after they have been cleared of a shooting. But everybody is not crazy about Taylor bringing along digital cameras on patrol for his filmmaking elective.

Where "End of Watch" succeeds is in how it surprises the viewer about these characters. This is Los Angeles. These are police. So, naturally after 87 movies about corrupt policemen in Los Angeles, there are certain preconceptions. However, outside of Taylor and Zavala being a tad aggressive, they come off as reasonable, especially in Taylor seeking a mate who he can talk to which he possibly finds in Janet(Anna Kendrick).

But where "End of Watch" misses a valuable opportunity is that instead of the realistic laid back day to day routine of these characters, we instead get the episodic cartoonish version. Basically, Zavala and Taylor stumble across every huge bust and rescue situation in Los Angeles over the period of a year. Yes, the movie does sort of point out the ridiculousness of this but that's really not enough here.