Anyone?
I saw this over the weekend. It’s not entirely, but largely a ‘found footage’ type flick. It was predictable, a bit sanctimonious and far more dramatic than the life of an avg beat cop.
Boy, I loved it. Great performances by the entire cast. If Anna Kendrick wasn’t already too adorable, she is now. Despite a long sense of foreboding about exactly where this was headed, I was cringing and caught up in the emotion the entire time.
I saw it a few weeks ago and thought it was great. It is the most technically sound cop movie we might ever see.
The movie might seem over dramatic but having worked the same area as in the movie I can assure that it is not. That stuff happens and happens more then people think. I know of or have heard the stories depicted in the movie and let me tell you that they had to tweak them very little to make them ready for the big screen.
You’d know better than I. :)
The heavy cartel presence and the hit put on the cops is seemingly a pretty rare occurrence in LA, but as I’ve got no facts for such a belief, maybe I’m way off.
The interaction between the two cops is really solid in this one. I quite enjoyed it.
Yeah, End of Watch is a bromance first and foremost, and Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena have more than enough chemistry to make it work. But perhaps more importantly, the director knows enough to really let it carry the movie. I love how much of it was the audience basically hanging out with these two guys. Like Training Day, but without the rookie/veteran and good/evil set-up.
I also liked the dopey videogame approach End of Watch takes to its action scenes. With the first-person shooter cam and the hood cam, the shootouts and car chases obviously recalled videogames. By playing with the found footage conceit, the videogame perspective felt appropriate and not shoehorned in, like it did in Act of Valor.
As a procedural, though, it’s really facile. About on par with Hurt Locker, in fact. I don’t have any problem with that, but I’m surprised that Marcus calls it technically sound, given how contrived so many of the set pieces were. The way the cops run into burning buildings, not waiting for backup, taking off badges for impromptu pugilism with belligerent suspects, and so forth. And, yeah, the whole plot arc with the cartel and some sort of paramilitary federal squad operating in Los Angeles was pretty silly, and clearly a device to build to a Butch Cassidy finale.
I did love a lot of the sharply observed details, like their sunglasses management, how Gyllenhaal would modulate his voice when using the radio, the station scenes, how they were treated by the detectives, the cop banter, how Cody Horn wore her hair, etc. Maybe that’s the stuff you mean, Marcus. The movie clearly had an insider’s appreciation for cop culture, and that must be gratifying to see. It made me wonder how well Colors holds up. I seem to recall that was a pretty grounded, character driven police procedural. Has anyone seen that lately?
Overall, I really enjoyed this. Are any of the recent cop shows on TV this good? Southland, maybe?
-Tom
Southland is a pretty dire as a tv drama and (detective) police procedural, but I think it has some of the best action and car chase scenes ever done on TV. And it will pull several good and at least one great one off a season. The uniform and patrol car universe seems to happen in an entirely different show to anything involving the homicide detectives, and their persistence in trying to make something unfucked out of the detective show amazes me. It has never worked.
I just saw this and absolutely loved it. Never have I seen a buddy cop movie before where the cops in question loved each other so intensely. And it felt very appropriate.
I loved the photography too. It reminded me very much of another movie, but I couldn’t place it. Maybe it will come to me later.
“I fucking love you bro” - not sure which character said that, but it didn’t matter.
Southland is fantastic, I’m not sure I’d agree that it’s a procedural though.
Watched End of Watch over the weekend, enjoyed Pena and Gyllenhall’s bromance but found the movie pretty boring, the ‘found footage’ pointless and artificial and the cartel plot felt very forced and out of nowhere.
Overall felt like I’d vastly prefer watch two episodes of Southland again than watch End of Watch.
“Into Hispanic?”
I’m watching this again tonight. Great googaly moogaly this movie is so effing good.
-xtien
“I am a consequence. I am an unpaid bill.”
It should go without saying that Frank Grillo is great. Just so freaking solid no matter how little he has to do. And it’s nice to see David Harbour again after that silly Equalizer movie. But I’d totally forgotten about Cody Horn in this. I’ve got a ton of David Ayer movies to watch this week and now I suddenly want to peel off and watch Magic Mike? What a dork.
Damn. There’s something so beautiful and relaxing about slipping into a good movie.
-xtien
“Follow me into the house dude.”
Arise most moribund of threads!
I caught this movie today and thought it was excellent. I’m not sure why it never came on my radar over the many years. Bumping this thread hoping that others will take an opportunity to catch it if - like me - they had also somehow missed it.
Reading my own post from 8 years ago, I have to admit, my memory of End of Watch has faded a little. I just remember really loving it. I should rewatch it one of these days.