ViewGuide

Created Nov 05, 2014 09:13PM PST • Edited Sep 27, 2023 07:54PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   I avoided End of Watch when it came out in 2012, thinking it was just a steroidal TV Cop Show, moviestar Jake Gyllenhaal notwithstanding. Then David Ayer’s movie demanded attention, given BrianSez’s effusive review and Ayer’s recent masterpiece Fury. My verdict? It is a big screen Cop Show, and a great one at that.

   The movie presents as reality video on the big screen, facilitated by Gyllenhaal’s hand-held video-cam, which he has ‘cause he’s taking a video production course. Add in cop-car dash-cams and the uni-cams they wear, and End of Watch has the feel of hand-held reality. That includes cartoonish-reality in the action sequences and awkward-reality like real-life in the peaceful scenes. Clever moviemaking, that.

   Ayer’s bravura movie is filled with heart-pounding moments, as BrianSez, making it a rewarding thrill ride, even as it skates over the line into enthusiastic exploitation.

   Its callow heroes – Jake Gyllenhaal & Michael Peña – are mostly unaffected by the carnage they encounter, energized by it in fact. Some things bother them, sure, but mostly they’re just happy to be there, as if they’re poster boys for Let’s Be Cops. Enthusiastic exploitation, remember.

   Ayer uses his great star Gyllenhaal to great effect, for instance having him workout at night, like Batman.

   End of Watch is all the better now that Ayer has Fury out and Gyllenhaal has Nightcrawler, two movies that supernova’d out of this thrilling and trenchant Ayer-Gyllenhaal partnership.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t emote well, yet is such an appealing hunk of beefcake that it hardly matters. Playing a dedicated cop who barely counts emoting as part of his playbook, he’s well cast indeed.

   Michael Penna is even better as his partner and best buddy, met at the academy, from different parts of town, the whole schmear. An Ayer favorite, Peña is a member of Brad Pitt’s tank crew in Ayer’s Fury

   Wives

   • Anna Kendrick is more open than usual as Gyllenhaal’s ideal woman. They make a great couple.
   • Natalie Martinez is luscious as Peña’s ideal wife.

   Cops

   • David Harbour plays an asshole senior officer.
   • Frank Grillo is always welcome, here as Sarge.
   • America Ferrera as a put-upon Latina officer
   • Jaime FitzSimons as the Captain

   Gangbangers

   • Cle Shaheed Sloan as Mr. Tre: seems well-cast, don’tcha think.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    David Ayer’s bravura film employs tight shots all the way through, not easy to do, yet tremendously engaging, so plenty worth it.

    The opening scene deserves hosannas for its perfect Cop Dogma as much as its visceral visuals. It opens on the date-stamp of a dash-cam display, accompanied by Gyllenhaal declaiming a We are the police monologue. Check it out in the nearby clip.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Pretty Bad 1.5

    Bad music, perhaps on purpose

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.1

17. Sex Erotic 2.6

18. Violence Savage 3.7

19. Rudeness Profane 3.0

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.1

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Glib 1.5

24. Physical Glib 1.7