End of Watch

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Before we begin, I need to get a question out of the way: what do you call this type of movie?

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"Uh... buddy cop?"

I don’t think it’s a mockumentary, as that name is usually reserved for comedies, right? I know Michael Peña has some comedies in his filmography, but that doesn’t make this a mockumentary, right? Like it’s not mocking anything in particular. I guess it’s just a documentary style narrative? Or a fake documentary? A fake-umentary?

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"Are you just making those terms up?"

Anyway, that’s how they chose to tell this story – using a fake documentary crew to follow two fake LAPD officers as they patrol their beloved city. In case you were wondering, Jake Gyllenhaal isn’t the only Caucasian in this city of blacks and Latinos. There’s David Harbour, who also plays that guy from The Newsroom. There’s also Frank Grillo, who you might recognize from a lot of films and television shows. And of course there’s Anna Kendrick, and yes, she sings a song in this movie.

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And dances the chicken dance.

End of Watch is written and directed by David Ayer, and if that name sounds familiar to you, it means you’ve watched too many cop movies. He’s written the screenplays for End of Watch, S.W.A.T., and Training Day, and those are just the ones I’ve heard of. So you see, Ayer’s got the buddy cop genre quite covered, and I don’t mean “buddy cop” in a comedic kind of way. This is about partners getting killed on duty, and I shall stop there before I reveal any more information.

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Woops... spoilers.

End of Watch. USA. 2012.



Original rating: 7.0 / 10
Natalie Martinez: + 0.1
Recognizable landmarks from Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: + 0.1
Final rating: 7.2 / 10





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