If you're the kind of person who, when presented with a "found footage" film, spends all your time wondering who's doing the filming and why, then stay away from End of Watch.
After establishing the conceit early on – LAPD beat cop Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is taking an acting course as part of an after hours degree and wires up both himself and partner Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) so he can get easy credit by filming their daily grind – this film has no problems cutting to different angles (including airbourne ones) and getting shots no-one would be handy to film.
The real question is, does any of that harm the film? Again, unless you’re obsessed with that kind of thing, the answer is: no in the slightest.
Written and directed by the writer of Training Day, this is basically a buddy cop film built around the banter between two leads with real chemistry, occasionally interrupted by a burst of street violence or a major crime bust.
There’s isn’t really anything all that new going on here and the story only gradually reveals itself – more by accident than by design our heroes keep taking down parts of a major Mexican cartel moving north, and eventually the cartel puts a price on their heads – but the leads are so likable just hanging out with them as they cruise around is more than enough of a foundation for a good time at the movies until the action starts getting serious.
The found footage approach here is more of a way of signalling that the film is going to be more about the small details than linear storytelling than it is a rigorous logical point, and as such it works just fine.
As does End of Watch as a whole.
4 out of 5
End Of Watch Australian release: 1st November, 2012 Official Site:End of Watch Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Anna Kendrick, Natalie Martinez, Frank Grillo, America Ferrera, David Harbour Director: David Ayer
