Quick & Dirty Reviews

End of Watch (4 out of 5)

An authentic portrayal of police officers on and off duty. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena play hot-shot partners who get in over their head when they catch the attention of a local Mexican cartel gang. Set in South Central, End of Watch delivers an exhilarating and almost first hand look at the day to day lives of two police officers in their best heroic light and in their worst macho posturing ways. End of Watch is shot in a handheld style, similar to the found-footage horror films which seem to be all the rage these days. This perspective is both an asset and a detriment, while it certainly draws you in it can be frustrating when you can't see what is going on, though in some brutally violent scenes you may be glad you can't. What makes End of Watch so engaging are the performances from the two leads both Gyllenhaal and Pena play well off each other and display a comradery so honest you lose yourself and join in with their dirty jokes and bravado. This film doesn't portray cops in neither a good or bad way, it is simply a more dramatized version of an episode of Cops and I guarantee you will find yourself questioning however you feel about cops for good or ill. The ending is my one compliant but unfortunately it's a pretty big deal. The film quickly becomes an over the top action movie in its final moments sucking all drama and realism it had up until then, and the ending while approriate will leave some viewers cold and maybe a little shaken. End of Watch is worth watching for the two lead performances alone, few times have a pair of actors so realistically portrayed friendship of this level and its incredibly engaging to follow these two around.

Dredd (3 out of 5) 

Dredd is a very different cop movie from the one above. Minimal in its story-telling and cartoonishly gory in its portrayal of action. Dredd sets out to make a kick-ass simple action movie, and it mostly succeeds. Karl Urban plays Dredd a Judge, a sort of terminator-esque cop dispatched to bring down criminals and ditch out justice on the spot as deemed necessary. Dredd is brutal and unemotional, executing criminals on the spot and dryly requesting the "meat-wagon" to dispose of the innocent bystanders who are undiscriminating killed throughout the movie. Dredd is played by Urban but since he never removes the iconic helmet, the only thing that comes across is his gravely voice and dead-pan delivery, and quite frankly it's all he needs. Partnered with a rookie physic Judge on her first mission, they must investigate Peach Trees a city block sized super complex run by the notorious Mama and her gang. The film doesn't aspire to be anything its not, and god bless it for that, but it also never truly stands out or becomes remarkable in any way. Even the over the top violence is too fake to have any visceral impact. I kept waiting for the big set-piece the one thing I would remember for weeks, but I never got it. Dredd aims low and hits right on target, a simple mindless action movie that is plenty bloody but never amounts to anything even remotely interesting.