Review: End of Watch (2012)

I'm not the cop film type to be honest, although I have been known to watch the occasional car chase on some obscure channel late at night when I haven't been able to sleep. End of Watch kept cropping up in some conversations however, and as I'm not type of chick to say no to a film, I thought why not!

End of Watch is what I guess to be your average cop film, but with a twist. It's all shot documentary style by Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal). It follows the daily lives of Brian and his work partner Mike (Peña) who are also best friends in real life. They end up getting in way over their heads with the local dangerous gangs after a lucky drugs bust.

I think The Day After Tomorrow was the first Jake Gyllenhaal film I saw, and that sparked off my first of what turned out to be many mild actor obsessions. Mild? I went straight onto the interwebs and purchased Donnie Darko, Bubble Boy and The Good Girl, on VHS if I remember right! As you can guess, no one needed to sell this film to me, and Jake in police uniform? Hi.



Exactly. Without my immediate bias, I really loved this film and it's completely changed my view on cop films, so if anyone has any suggestions of similar films, I'd be happy to hear them!

The bromance made this film what it is, and even though it's a drama/thriller, I laughed during End of Watch more from banter alone than some comedies in total. Gyllenhaal and Peña are an awesome duo! Just a short example below...

The camera work was really effective too, but there were a few continuity issues that made some scenes really quite confusing. However the ending made me forget any issues I may have had; it was so well done and I didn't see it coming at all!  Now I know there is a twist I want to watch it!! Honestly you need to! I was a bit 'meh' before watching it but I loved it!

If you love cop films anyway, then you should have already seen this. If you're not, give it a go, like I did! It won't be wasted time I promise you.