Thursday 8 August 2013

End of Watch - Phil's Five Words for Films

End of Watch Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as LAPD officers who work in South Central Los Angeles, End of Watch sets out to be a realistic fake-umentary about the lives and perils of a serving officer. For me however, it is nothing more than one of the most disappointing, depressing and over-rated films of recent times. The hand held camera POV device starts out as an interesting, if not-too-original, idea but soon becomes annoying and is used almost as an afterthought throughout the majority of the film. The dialogue is firmly rooted in the 'fu#*ing bro dude whatever' style and irritates more than it entertains. The representation of police work in parts of LA may well be gritty and hard edged but it also represents everything that is nasty and pathetically evil about modern societies – guns, drugs, gangs, ghettos and a lack of empathy or intelligence. The whole thing is wrapped in a bubble of unbelievability and the characters, action and reactions soon become ridiculous. There is nothing likeable or interesting about any of the people involved and even throwing in a baby and a wedding made no difference to my desire to see all the gun-toting, thick-headed, vapid plonkers put out of their misery. If anything, it is a lesson in how not to police the mean streets of a segregated society. It is a film that can't decide between being a character driven documentary or a brain-dead action film and ends up being a messy, lazy, dull movie full of racial caricatures. I couldn't and wouldn't sit through it twice.

3.5 out of 10
Cert 15 ( uk )
2012.

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