Weekly rewind: October 11
BY MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2012
10/11/12 at 5:32 AM
For expanded review, visit tulsaworld.com/movies.
"End of Watch"
Rating: 
(on a scale of zero to four stars)
"End of Watch" is not only one of the best cop movies in years, but also one of the best pictures of 2012, balancing lives-in-the-balance drama with action and humor between its two lead actors.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña deliver performances that rarely reach such depth of character. They make an audience care about their characters and their lives, and their ultra-dangerous jobs, and all that they stand to lose if they don't come home from work alive some night.
Writer-director David Ayer is Hollywood's authority on gritty Los Angeles police dramas, but "End of Watch" is different from his "Training Day" and "Street Kings." This movie is focused on two good cops, rather than rogue lawmen.
Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Peña) are partners and best friends, patrolling a section of South Central where every day seems to promise intense action. They seek it out, as we see from not only the fourth-wall perspective, but also through the men's tiny uniform cameras and their squad car's dashboard camera.
This latter view provides many of the movie's best moments, and not only for shootouts and ramming other vehicles, but also for the dialogue between Brian and Mike.
It is that of two best buds joking, giving each other a hard time, confessing their secrets and fears, and doing their job. These are characters that you cannot help but care what happens to them as we come to know their hopes and dreams intimately.
The dialogue between Gyllenhaal and Peña is that of two actors who genuinely like each other, formed as if they had gone beyond rehearsals and perhaps doubled-up on police ride-alongs for a month before filming.
Now showing
| Movie | Rating (on 4 scale) |
| Finding Nemo 3-D | |
| Looper | |
| The Master | |
| End of Watch | |
| Arbitrage | |
| The Dark Knight Rises | |
| Killer Joe | |
| Lawless | |
| The Expendables 2 | |
| Hope Springs | |
| Pitch Perfect | |
| Trouble With the Curve | |
| The Bourne Legacy | |
| ParaNorman | |
| The Campaign | |
| Ted | |
| Hotel Transylvania | |
| Total Recall | |
— MICHAEL SMITH AND NOUR HABIB, World Scene Writers
Associated Images:
Jake Gyllenhaal portrays Brian Taylor in "End of Watch," a drama about Los Angeles police. Courtesy
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