End Of Watch Blu-Ray Review

Fuckin’ End of Watch follows two LAPD officers, Taylor and Zavala (Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña) through their daily grind serving the badge. We see them try to balance family life with the job and watch as they get embroiled in something much bigger than themselves involving gang wars. The lead two are terrific. Gyllenhaal and Peña share an easy chemistry than makes the banter-filled ridealongs as much fun as the more traditional running and gunning action. The whole cast are great including Anna Kendrick, who does a lot with a limited role and America Ferrera, who will make you completely forget about her role as Ugly Betty.

Fuckin’ looking at the cover, the macho-as-fuck title and whatnot, you’d be fuckin’ forgiven for thinking End of Watch is just another cop movie and just another lit candle at the shrine American media has for boys in fuckin’ uniform. The opening bit where Taylor is reciting some pseudo-inspirational bullshit over a dashboard cam police chase had me worried. I’ve seen too many of these films to have any patience left for this sort of crap. Thankfully, as the fucking film went on, I realised this chest-thumping glorification is completely ironic, with the irony getting heavier and heavier with each passing minute. The intentional “Cops” style found footage style takes a bit of getting over. Found footage is the bane of my fucking life at the moment, purely because many films use it as an excuse to not shoot their film properly and more importantly, save money. Found footage as been a rather annoying crutch for a while. End of Watch is shot in a semi-documentary style and it works very well. You feel like you’re riding up front with Taylor and Zavala when they’re on patrol and you feel right in the thick of it when things kick off. It makes for some fantastic tension too. My knuckles were white when it came to the finale. The film isn’t tethered to the style though and has some great sweeping shots of the city and the like. I’ve seen so many films be limited by the documentary gimmick and to have a film like End of Watch just use it as a way to make certain scenes seem a little bit more intimate is refreshing. Who the hell said you have to rigidly stick to formulas?

The fucking thing is, End of Watch is much better than the sum of its parts. However, it’s easy to see how this film could be misunderstood. If you’ve had all your jabs, check out the IMDB page on it. There are countless threads, presumably started by drooling fuckin’ cretins, calling the film “unrealistic” or better yet “police propaganda”. I get the feeling irony is an alien concept to them. Whilst our mains do get several commendations, they’re certainly no poster boys and to miss that point is to miss the entire point of the film. Also, you may have noticed all my fucking profanity throughout this fuckin’ review. Well, End of Watch is a sweary bastard. Normally, this stuff washes over me, but I really noticed it here. It’s just about justified though. Policing is a stressful job and it’s made clear that most of the main players in the film aren’t exactly college material. Apparently, it’s the 6th sweariest film ever- so there’s that. I’ll drop the swearing now. I think I made my fucking point.

End of Watch is a proper rollercoaster and I don’t use that cliché lightly. It is also now one of my favourite films of last year. It’s so much better than it has any right to be. It could have easily been some knocked together cop toss destined for a late night slot on Channel 5. As it stands, it’s a riveting story about characters you actually care about. It’s a sucker punch of a film and a damn fine one to boot. Recommended.

Ben Browne

★★★★☆

Rating:15
BD/DVD Release Date: 18th March 2013 (UK)
Directed By:David Ayer
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera, Natalie Martinez
Buy End Of Watch: DVD / Blu-ray / Limited Edition Steelbook (Blu-ray + DVD)