Sheep Movie Review: End of Watch

End of Watch, directed by David Ayer, stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera, and Cody Horn. End of Watch was not at all what I thought it was going to be. Yes, it's action, but based more in a dramatic mode while it walks the fine line between bad taste and intense cop drama. 

Plot: 

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.

First off, I have to give major credit to both Jake and Michael for outstanding performances. I don't think Jake's taken on a role this diverse and engaging before in his career. Michael Pena has been one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood so hats off to him for showing he's got the chops and guts to drive home a realistic character performance. The banter and camaraderie between these two leading men was off the charts with very natural chemistry that brought home the realism this movie set out to achieve. 

Set to the pace of the mean streets of LA, End of Watch feels like a long episode of Cops but one where you follow the cops home and look into their personal lives. Director David Ayer takes a serious shot at fulfilling this action drama and while I didn't walk away wowed, I was at least impressed with the dedication. Some of the visuals left more to be desired with the all to common shaky camera syndrome and chopping editing. Audiences are supposed to believe that Jake's character is constantly filming his job for a "project" but that fell flat for me since it seems pretty unrealistic that any department would allow this sort of behavior. 

While just about every call they go on turns out to be exciting, it left me wondering about the small stuff like a dog barking or the can man digging around in trash bins. I mean come on, not all the calls are going to be this exciting and I wanted to see the small stuff too. As the movie rolls on I did find myself becoming emotionally attached to the pair, we busted jokes in the squad car, played pranks on other officers, and chased down the bad guys! So when they walk into extremely risky situations I found myself holding my breath. For the ride alone and the main character performances I'm giving this movie a solid rating. 

A little less on the circa 1995 cliche gangs would have gone a long way but lil snoopy still needed his day to shine. Training Day this was not, BUT if you like Cops and don't mind some gore and grit then give this one a go. I support the men and women who wear a badge but felt the light shined on them may come with mix feelings. 

Getting 3 and 1/2 'Turner & Hooch' Sheep 

KD 

Prince of Persia, it cost money to see this?

Oh wait! I've seen this movie its called The Mummy! No? Ok, then its called National Treasure! No again? Ok, how about Indiana Jones Temple of Doom! No? Lost Arc?

I swear I've seen this before.....hhhhmmm *light bulb going off

Got it! Its because this has BEEN DONE BEFORE AND FAR BETTER THAN THIS!

Starting my actual review now, Prince of Persia directed by Mike Newell and staring Jake Gyllenhaal (jill-en-hall) as our hunky eye candy Dastan, Gemma Arterton (who could double as Data's sister from STTNG) as Princess Tamina, and Sir Ben Kingsley (not sure if I can forgive you for this on Ben) as Nizam.

I would like to take this time to point out that so far all these characters are of Caucasian decent, and 2 out of the 3 talk in this movie as in real life, with an English accent. I mean was this all Hollywood could come up with? Are we as a nation that afraid of seeing middle eastern actors on screen in the US? A debate for another day perhaps but for now, lets all say together...P-E-R-S-I-A. Say it with me now, come on guys, PERSIA. :)

I think the powers at be decided it would be a really swell idea to raid a halloween superstore! (ok I am totally guilty of that too) Throw a bunch of half-rate low budget wigs on these actors and just call it a day. Look now their Persian! I can hear it now, "Hey just pull out those cheap wigs for these guys Tom and get this movie made baby! Now action!"

Stunts in this movie were so freakin corny I was cracking up non stop, and the hits just kept coming. I mean of course every time you need an exact length of rope to jump off a roof while escaping the bad guys, it just happens to be there. I mean duh.

Jake, baby, your hot but honey your not that hot. I didn't buy any of it. No deal. Your acting sucked and your stunts were even worse. Was that really the best accent you could come up with? Give it up to your stunt double though. Just you stand there and look pretty sweetie. Smile and wave boys, just smile and wave. :)

Gemma, why don't you ever have facial expressions? Is it a medical issue? Come on. This was the same character from Clash of The Titans (which also sucked) and I am just not feeling it. Give me some depth in your work, be an actress. Believe you can fly! Believe you can touch the sky! *dang now i want to hear that song.

Alfred Molina played the character of Sheik Amar, a bad rip off of Jake Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. Sorry dude you just cant fill those shoes, Johnny's got it on lock!

Green Screen. Man on man this movie was over the top with the green screen action, you couldn't even pretend it was real. Fake and fake and shake and bake. And I have so seen this set at Epcot in Florida, walked thorough it in fact. Glad to know Disney spared no expense on this one. Ata-boy.

If by now your still unsure about my review let me spell it out, this movie bombed the big one. Pass it up and watch The Mummy, at least Brandon Fraiser is funny. Sorry you had to pay for this one V, I got you next time.

KD