by jellydonut25 » Sun Mar 24, 2013 7:28 pm
End of Watch - I don't know how much it really needed to take the "handheld" format (and because it's going for that, there are more than a few times where you're wondering who is filming this scene or that scene or why they are still filming), but I also know that I didn't end up caring AT ALL.
I thought this was really good. Bolstered by an EXCELLENT performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, and a script that perfectly balances the worrkaday humdrum in with the wild action, honestly, these character talk and act so much like real people, that you really don't even notice how seemlessly this goes from a movie about two cops on the streets to one about a Mexican drug cartel waging war on two cops on the streets.
I approach this from the point of view that the movie isn't meant to be told through handheld footage, but rather, it just so happens that SOME of the characters have cameras and we OCCASIONALLY get to see things through that point of view.
Either way, REALLY good.