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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