End of Watch

The need of another cop film in Hollywood is like the need of ice cubes in the Arctic. We have seen a plethora of cop movies-- drama and comedy. Each time one is made, the more realistic they seem to get, and "End of Watch" is no exception.

Two young 'top gun' type of officers, Brian Tyler and Mike Zavala (Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena) are inseparable police partners, sharing their lives on and off their police watch. Mike has a beautiful wife, Gabby (Natalie Martinez) and kids, and Brian has a beautiful, fun-loving girlfriend, Janet (Anna Kendrick).
During a routine traffic stop, they suspect that these guys aren't exactly 'kosher', so they stop them and end up confiscating a small cache of money and firearms.Little do they know that they become marked for death after this arrest, because the guys they stopped were members of a notorious cartel. Will they survive or will they have the back-up they need?

Others to round out the cast are David Harbour as Van Hauser, fellow cop, Frank Grillo as Sarge, America Ferrera as Orozco, fellow rookie, Cody Horn as Davis, fellow rookie, Cle Sloan as Mr. Tre, and Jaime FitzSimons as Captain Reese.

This was grittily and intensely written and directed by David Ayers (directing- "Harsh Times" '05, "Street Kings" '08, writing/screenplay- "U-571" 2000, "The Fast and the Furious" '01, "Training Day" '01, "Dark Blue" '02, "S.W.A.T." '03, "Harsh Times" '05). I realize this is a police drama about the grit, intensity, brutality of cops working in one of the most crime-ridden sections of L.A., but in, at least, two scenes in this, the 'F' word must have been used for half the scene-- literally. Profanity, graphic violence, blood, I realize is all part of this horrific world, but com'on, don't these people know any other words? And, yes the brunt of the profanity was by these evil criminals, but still, it was just over kill. To give Ayers credit, this was well written, but if he left out even most of the profanity, he'd probably come up with a 45 minute running time. One thing is for sure: this gave me a whole new respect for the men and women in blue.

This is a film that was tough to watch, but I'm sure this was purposed, because it shows us, in very graphic ways, what it's like to be on the streets of this and any large city, and if you can stomach this kind of intensity, you will leave the theater a changed citizen.

Out of 4 stars: 3                      Rated: R                        109mins.