End of Watch (2012)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 166
Fresh: 141 | Rotten: 25
End of Watch has the energy, devotion to characters, and charismatic performances to overcome the familiar pitfalls of its genre and handheld format.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 42
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 6
End of Watch has the energy, devotion to characters, and charismatic performances to overcome the familiar pitfalls of its genre and handheld format.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 68,071
My Rating
Movie Info
From the writer of Training Day, End of Watch is a riveting action thriller that puts audiences at the center of the chase like never before. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña star as young LA police officers who discover a secret that makes them the target of the country's most dangerous drug cartel. -- (C) Open Road
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Jake Gyllenhaal
Officer Taylor -
Michael Peña
Officer Zavala -
Frank Grillo
Sarge -
America Ferrera
Officer Orozco, Orozco -
Cody Horn
Davis, Officer Davis -
Maurice Compte
Big Evil -
David Harbour
Officer Van Hauser, Van... -
Shondrella Avery
Bonita -
Natalie Martinez
Gabby -
Richard Cabral
Demon -
Yahira Garcia
La La -
Jaime FitzSimons
Captain Reese -
Kristy Wu
Sook
ADVERTISEMENT
End of Watch Trailer & Photos
All Critics (166) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (142) | Rotten (25) | DVD (1)
Ayer and his cast appear to have so convincingly nailed the way these characters talk and act that you might not even notice the film slipping from workaday grit into out-and-out myth.
Top CriticThe actors, both excellent, get right into Ayer's groove. So by the time we arrive at the unsparing climax, we really know and care about these guys.
Gyllenhaal and Pena are after a lived-in camaraderie and a street-level realism. Pena, especially, succeeds; you buy him every second.
The performances here are so sharp that viewers may wish End of Watch has been shot by someone who knew how to find the right point of view for a scene and leave it there.
Intermittently enjoyable but incredibly frustrating.
Jumpy and exciting.
This Jake Gyllenhaal buddy/cop drama features some of the best on-screen banter in years.
Deeply affecting, powerful film that's a thrilling experience. Highly recommended.
It's time to ride along with the LAPD through South Central, but this is no "Adam 12″. It's a realistic roller-coaster ride told with hand-held cameras and other devices.
David Ayer's End of Watch is an unflinching cop drama that uses the handheld approach to heighten the drama and escalate the tension.
The performances and chemistry of the lead and believable, improvised dialogue keep the drama grounded.
What gives it life are the performances of Gyllenhaal and Peña. They emerge as beacons of friendship in a bleak world of barred windows, barking dogs and strutting gangsters.
It leaves you wondering -- who is filming the Gyllenhaal/Anna Kendrick love scenes?
Nicely balanced between savage violence and sweet human interactions, and it whips along at a brisk pace.
The street characters are played by a remarkable panoply of real-life types who speak in a thrilling, totally believable patois.
Planning on shooting your next movie handheld? Hoping for that realism dividend? Please read this first.
A strong sense of camaraderie sets this edgy police thriller apart from the crowd. And it's also a change of direction for writer-director David Ayer, who has explored the dark side of police corruption in Training Day, Harsh Times and Street Kings.
Both actors are first rate, their friendship palpable, their professional conduct (tempered by practical joking and youthful bravado) convincing.
If I was a big-city American policeman watching this, I would also wonder just whose side Ayer is on. I'd be more nervous about going to the work the next day. Not less.
Ayers's warmest film to date finds meaning and depth in its "I love you, man" exchanges and rarely goes too long without staging some daring detective work and videogame ultraviolence.
One to watch, but through narrowed eyes.
Writer and director David Ayer has created a pair of real, untainted heroes - which makes this a rare cinematic treat you have to watch. End of.
Audience Reviews for End of Watch
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
-
- Officer Zavala: Admit it, you'd hit that shit.
- Officer Taylor: Orozco?
- Officer Zavala: Yeah.
- Officer Taylor: With a cinderblock.
-
- Officer Zavala: Marriage is a promise before God.
-
- Officer Zavala: God loves cops.
-
- Officer Zavala: When me and Gabby got engaged, she [Gaby's grandmother] asked me one thing. Do you want to hear it?
- Officer Taylor: Fine, let's hear it.
- Officer Zavala: She said can you live without her? And if the answer's yes, man up and forget her. Don't string her along. Think about it. I did.
-
- Officer Taylor: Z, Look at me. Alright? Look at me. On three, dude, you're gonna empty your mag and run.
-
- Officer Zavala: Sometimes, I don't even know when you're kidding. I need to know when you're kidding.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| My review of "End of Watch" | 2 months ago | 12 |
| Oscar material | 3 months ago | 6 |
| To Jake Mulligan's ""review" | 4 months ago | 0 |
| Great move | 6 months ago | 1 |
Latest News on End of Watch
February 14, 2013:
David Ayer Has FuryThe "End of Watch" writer/director is set to helm a WWII tank film.
January 24, 2013:
RT Interview: David Ayer Talks End of WatchWe recently had the chance to talk to End of Watch director David Ayer. This thriller about two...
January 22, 2013:
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Unflinching Cop Thriller End of WatchThis week on home video, we've got a few Certified Fresh movies to share with you, and at the top of...
What's Hot On RT
Bradley Cooper's Best Movies
Fast & Furious 6 is Certified Fresh
Fast & Furious cars gallery
Blockbusters ranked!
Featured on RT
- Weekly Ketchup: Fox and Marvel Both Courting Quicksilver for Comic Blockbusters 0
- Critics Consensus: Fast & Furious 6 is Certified Fresh 44
- Red Carpet Photos with Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Gina Carano and More 0
- Video: The Hangover Part III Cast Interviews 0
- Total Recall: Bradley Cooper's Best Movies 40
- Parental Guidance: Epic and Beautiful Creatures 2
- Comic Book Movies You Can Watch Online 9
Top Headlines
-
Evan Peters Joins X-Men: Days of Future Past
0
-
Toby Jones Talks Captain America: The Winter Soldier
1
-
The Poltergeist Reboot May Actually Be a Sequel
12
-
Will Forte Promises MacGruber 2
1
-
Universal Plans Timecop Reboot
2
-
Return of the Jedi Turns 30
1
-
Vin Diesel Says Fast & Furious 7 Will Take Place in L.A.
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Foreign Titles
- Sin tregua (ES)
"Every Moment of Your Life They Stand Watch"
End of Watch is a hard hitting, gritty, and well made cop thriller directed with intensity by David Ayer and boasts two great performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, as best friends and partners. The film is shot like a documentary in order to make it feel more real. It certainly does have a very realistic feel to it the whole way. There's parts that are disturbing, violent, and down right gruesome, but at the heart of the film is always the friendship between two fellow cops.
Brian and Mike are two cops working in a heavily gang and drug influenced part of LA. They also love their jobs. They love saving lives, taking out the bad guys, and life threatening situations have become the routine for them. However, their fire and gusto may prove to get them into trouble once they start messing with an extremely powerful cartel working out of LA.
A lot of the movie is basically us watching the two cops as they go about their watches. We watch them take calls and go into situations not knowing what's going to happen when they arrive on the scene. One of the cops, Brian, is taking a film class, so he is documenting everything they do on the job. He carries around a camera when he's able to, and him and his partner also have mini cameras on their uniforms.
This movie proved to be a little more emotional than I would have ever thought. It's a movie that uses all the excitement and joking between the two to really show that these guys think they are bullet proof, fire proof, and any other type of proof. Overall, this is just about as good as a beat cop movie can be. It really is excellent filmmaking.