Review of End of Watch (2012) by Philip M — 15 Jul 2013
End of Watch, quite frankly, starts out extremely poorly. With a bigheaded, pretentious monologue about justice and the law, Gyllenhaal sets the tone of the movie perfectly - if it were a recruitment commercial.
Those chiding Act of Valor for the same crime are hypocritical sheep - nothing in the latter tops the horror that is End of Watch's opening lines. Fortunately, it does recover quickly, perhaps embarrassed by its metricious demeanor, and introduces the two main characters, played by Michael Pena and Jake Gyllanhaal, without further ado.
The pair do have shockingly good chemistry, but again, the movie abandons their relationship too often for absurd outside conflicts and developments that either aren't interesting, aren't relevant, or seem gimmicky.
The film's worst crime is its utter inability to decide whether to succumb entirely to the dreaded found-footage format or simply make do with impossible gonzo angles, thereby contradicting itself frustratingly.
The reason for the terrible technique is hastily explained that Officer Taylor (Gyllenhaal) is shooting film for his film class. I can't even begin to explain how many questions appear from this poor explanation, so I won't bother delving into it, but it's shoddy at best and insultingly stupid at worst.
Still, despite all this, these incorrigible filmmaking crimes, the actors and the script are the central parts of movies, and this one does deliver. Anna Kendrick delivers a fantastic performance as the love interest (like, really fantastic), and as stated before the two officers seem to have been good friends for years - an essential part of crafting a believable relationship.
The movie is never boring and does a fine job documenting the lives of two police officers, right down to their blase dismissals of death threats, but by the end we're left wondering if we were supposed to be seeing a story or a vague social commentary.
Of course, the two aren't mutually exclusive, but in this case maybe they should have been.
This review of End of Watch (2012) was written by Philip M on 15 Jul 2013.
End of Watch has generally received very positive reviews.
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