End of Watch 4K 2012 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Two police officers, Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, serve in the Los Angeles Police Department and patrol dangerous areas of the city where gangs operate. Their dangerous work doesn't stop Brian and Mike from starting families, but one day their lives and the well-being of their loved ones are threatened when the cops mess up the plans of a powerful crime group.

Review 4K Movie

I managed to see the film at a special pre-premiere screening. End of Watch is a striking example of how many “uncharted paths” can actually be discovered by trying to use the newfangled mockumentary genre and crossing it with any other genre. How poor recent horror productions appear—but when amateur filming enters another genre, we can see remarkable results—and David Ayer's new film is a vivid confirmation of this.

To be fair, of course, it's worth noting that not all of the film is typical pseudo-documentary, but more than half of the footage was shot on all kinds of cameras and recording devices. Ayer does not attempt to recreate classic found footage here — there are many scenes that could not possibly have been captured on any camera, and there is also a pleasant soundtrack. But this style of filming helps to find a different approach to revealing the characters' personalities and, of course, to make what is happening on screen as realistic as possible. The beginning shows us a car chase, filmed by a dashcam in a police car, while the main character fills us in on the situation and delivers a monologue about who they are and what they do, calling themselves (i.e., the police) “the thin blue line.” It's all very dynamic and interesting; and then we see the guys in the police station locker room; Brian (Jake Gyllenhaal) shows us his locker and explains what's what, filming it all and justifying it by saying that he needs the recording for some kind of course or something like that. — here, it is immediately striking how skillfully the creators use this concept of amateur filming, not wasting minutes of screen time on stupid dialogue, as in the latest idiotic pseudo-documentary horror films, but using it to give the viewer maximum information in minimum time. After all, Brian talks about his work and his life, and it doesn't seem fake — it looks as if an ordinary patrolman from South Central was given a camera and asked to talk about himself. Next, we see him communicating with his partner Mike (Michael Peña) and other colleagues through cameras installed in cars, as well as those that Brian himself placed on his and his partner's uniforms, and all kinds of other recorders; and sometimes just from the sidelines — all of which adds to the completeness of the characters; and most importantly, it keeps the viewer interested, given the not-so-trivial situations and, of course, the unexpected abundance of humor that permeates the dialogues, primarily, of course, between our partners.

The plot of the film is not really expressed so vividly here; and for the most part, the film looks like a simple description of the work that the partners do. There is no obvious driving force — and we see how the guys make arrests, how they work and relax, how they communicate;

how Brian, a confirmed bachelor, meets a girl he considers special (Anna Kendrick), and what comes of it, and what advice he gets from his partner, who has long been like a brother to him and who has been married for eight years to the only woman he has ever known. Mike, meanwhile, is Mexican. And Brian is white. And there is a lot of appropriate banter on this topic in the film. In general, a lot of the humor in the film is based on the colorfulness of different ethnic groups, but the plot singles out three: blacks, Mexicans, and police officers. And then, among the police officers, there is also banter about these different groups, plus funny dialogues between female and male cops. Among the female patrol officers, by the way, Cody Horn was spotted, who recently appeared in Super Mike — here her role is not so big, but still bright. The actors, in general, are all great. Needless to say, the on-screen duo of Gyllenhaal and Peña has incredible chemistry and such clever banter between partners that they could rival the main characters of “The Nerds.”

Nevertheless, every story must come to some kind of conclusion, and the hints and fragments that the viewer has carefully collected throughout the film materialize at the end in the form of a truly clever and powerful finale, which is also quite unexpected. Despite the overall lightness, the ending adds solid weight and meaning, and, of course, makes the story complete. Despite its short running time, the film nevertheless makes you feel a strong connection with its characters; and by the end, you no longer mind the lack of a clear storyline in the first half of the film, because you already know the characters too well and empathize with them wholeheartedly. End of Watch is a magnificent example of a classic “cop story” which, despite being filmed in a “modern style,” has retained its essence intact.