End of Watch Reviews
Top CriticAyer 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.
The 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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Gyllenhaal and Pena are after a lived-in camaraderie and a street-level realism. Pena, especially, succeeds; you buy him every second.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Both actors are marvelous -- this may be the most nuanced and far-ranging performance Gyllenhaal has ever given -- and writer-director David Ayer is unapologetically frank about the dangers these men face.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
I'm not sure who appointed David Ayer poet laureate for the LAPD, but at least he takes the job seriously.
End of Watch suffers from no end of sanctimony.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Ayer ... keeps wrecking the sense of realism he's trying to build.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Gyllenhaal and the perpetually under-rated Pena have a wonderful way of bouncing off one another and Ayers is wise to make this the energy that drives the movie instead of mere violence.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
Gyllenhaal and Pena have great chemistry together ... in their best performances to date.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A portrait of law enforcement under pressure that is as ennobling as it is gritty.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
A visceral story of beat cops that is rare in its sensitivity, rash in its violence and raw in its humor.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
The best scenes are filmed inside the cruiser, dashboard shots that face inward instead of out, catching Gyllenhaal and Peña in moments so playful and true they make all other buddy cops look bogus by comparison.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Writer/director David Ayer gives us an authentic, sometimes shockingly gruesome ride along.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
The shaky camera work -- often a gimmicky stylistic option -- is an effective choice here, both as a story element and a technique.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
It's not a pretty job. But it's a pretty awesome film.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
A muscular, maddening exploitation movie embellished with art-house style and anchored by solid performances.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
End of Watch is one thriller where the adrenaline rush, considerable as it is, is almost always put in the service of character. Happily, the character on display turns out to be considerable, too.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
At times Ayer rubs our noses, almost literally, in the devastating horribleness of it all.
It goes beyond gritty and realistic violence into a zone where Hieronymus Bosch collides with Dante ...
Shallow down inside, "End of Watch" is a music-video Frappuccino of quick cuts, sparkling banter, serial crises, grisly violence and tongue-jerk profanity.
There are 6 million cop shows on television right now. On none of them have I heard two men speak to each other with as much natural affinity as these two.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Ayer brings a rough, aggressive energy to the picture, staying within the broad outlines of the buddy-cop formula but investing the characters with no-bull authenticity.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
End of Watch gives you the savage whoosh of being on a job that can get you killed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
It's every cop movie you've ever seen but from a fresh angle: You go into each situation without a clue about its outcome.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7
For those who can handle Ayer's overuse of the shaky-cam approach on the big screen, End of Watch is satisfying and emotionally potent.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Nerve-rattling in the best way, the sharp, visceral urban police procedural End of Watch is one of the best American cop movies I've seen in a long time.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
It may seem like just another movie about the mean streets of South Central and the blue knights that keep the peace, but writer-director David Ayer focuses on the characters while slowly and subtly bringing the plot up from the background.
What saves this cop show from its predictable tropes and cliches are terrific performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, who've got each other's backs as actors and as "brothers" in law enforcement.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
"End of Watch" feels new. Fresh. Immediate. Watching it, it's almost as though you're seeing a cop movie for the first time.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
After so many films, not just Ayer's, where LAPD cops are depicted as corrupt, homicidal or suicidal, it's refreshing to see one where the boys in blue really are the good guys for a change.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
"End of Watch" is one of the best police movies in recent years, a virtuoso fusion of performances and often startling action.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
As social insight, End of Watch is useless, but as engrossing entertainment, it's irresistible, thanks to Ayer's gift for dialogue, the relentless pacing set by film editor Dody Dorn, and gorgeous performances by Gyllenhaal and Peña ...
Writer and director David Ayer manages to overcome the shortcomings of the genre, many of which are present here, with great chemistry between his actors and sheer momentum.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
From the brutal daily violence to the dramatic final act, "End of Watch" itself remains thrilling and uncompromising.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Ayer clearly thinks he's making a grittily realistic ode to the long arm of the law, yet only the more intimate scenes ring true.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Macho swagger is justified by some adrenaline-producing encounters in cops vs. cartels drama.
Gyllenhall and Peña have chemistry together and charisma individually.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Like a knife in the eye, End of Watch cuts past the cliches of standard police procedurals, serving instead as a visceral ride-along with two thrill-seeking cops.
Compared to an average episode of 'Criminal Minds,' it's pretty good.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
