End of Watch 2012

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Gyllenhaal and Pena are after a lived-in camaraderie and a street-level realism. Pena, especially, succeeds; you buy him every second. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The performances here are so sharp that viewers may wish End of Watch has been shot by someone who knew how to find the right point of view for a scene and leave it there. Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: It's every cop movie you've ever seen but from a fresh angle: You go into each situation without a clue about its outcome. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: What saves this cop show from its predictable tropes and cliches are terrific performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, who've got each other's backs as actors and as "brothers" in law enforcement. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: A muscular, maddening exploitation movie embellished with art-house style and anchored by solid performances. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: Ayer and his cast appear to have so convincingly nailed the way these characters talk and act that you might not even notice the film slipping from workaday grit into out-and-out myth. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Shallow down inside, "End of Watch" is a music-video Frappuccino of quick cuts, sparkling banter, serial crises, grisly violence and tongue-jerk profanity. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The shaky camera work -- often a gimmicky stylistic option -- is an effective choice here, both as a story element and a technique. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: "End of Watch" feels new. Fresh. Immediate. Watching it, it's almost as though you're seeing a cop movie for the first time. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: Gyllenhall and Pena have chemistry together and charisma individually. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Gyllenhaal and Pena's relationship, a sort of heterosexual love affair, is depicted with a sense of tenderness and care that does not extend to the cartoonish villains that dominate the film's lackluster final act. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Writer and director David Ayer manages to overcome the shortcomings of the genre, many of which are present here, with great chemistry between his actors and sheer momentum. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: There are 6 million cop shows on television right now. On none of them have I heard two men speak to each other with as much natural affinity as these two. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: I'm not sure who appointed David Ayer poet laureate for the LAPD, but at least he takes the job seriously. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Both actors are marvelous -- this may be the most nuanced and far-ranging performance Gyllenhaal has ever given -- and writer-director David Ayer is unapologetically frank about the dangers these men face. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Gyllenhaal and the perpetually under-rated Pena have a wonderful way of bouncing off one another and Ayers is wise to make this the energy that drives the movie instead of mere violence. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: The ingredients in [this] cop drama are as routine as a traffic stop. But director/writer David Ayer (who wrote the electric good-cop/bad-cop Training Day) makes it work. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Nerve-rattling in the best way, the sharp, visceral urban police procedural End of Watch is one of the best American cop movies I've seen in a long time. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: Compared to an average episode of 'Criminal Minds,' it's pretty good. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Macho swagger is justified by some adrenaline-producing encounters in cops vs. cartels drama. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: From the brutal daily violence to the dramatic final act, "End of Watch" itself remains thrilling and uncompromising. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: A visceral story of beat cops that is rare in its sensitivity, rash in its violence and raw in its humor. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Ayer ... keeps wrecking the sense of realism he's trying to build. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Jumpy and exciting. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: End of Watch is one thriller where the adrenaline rush, considerable as it is, is almost always put in the service of character. Happily, the character on display turns out to be considerable, too. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, NPR: At times Ayer rubs our noses, almost literally, in the devastating horribleness of it all. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The actors, both excellent, get right into Ayer's groove. So by the time we arrive at the unsparing climax, we really know and care about these guys. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Gyllenhaal and Pena have great chemistry together ... in their best performances to date. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's not a pretty job. But it's a pretty awesome film. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: For those who can handle Ayer's overuse of the shaky-cam approach on the big screen, End of Watch is satisfying and emotionally potent. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Writer/director David Ayer gives us an authentic, sometimes shockingly gruesome ride along. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "End of Watch" is one of the best police movies in recent years, a virtuoso fusion of performances and often startling action. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: End of Watch gives you the savage whoosh of being on a job that can get you killed. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: It goes beyond gritty and realistic violence into a zone where Hieronymus Bosch collides with Dante ... Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: The best scenes are filmed inside the cruiser, dashboard shots that face inward instead of out, catching Gyllenhaal and Pena in moments so playful and true they make all other buddy cops look bogus by comparison. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Ayer brings a rough, aggressive energy to the picture, staying within the broad outlines of the buddy-cop formula but investing the characters with no-bull authenticity. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: End of Watch suffers from no end of sanctimony. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: After so many films, not just Ayer's, where LAPD cops are depicted as corrupt, homicidal or suicidal, it's refreshing to see one where the boys in blue really are the good guys for a change. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: It may seem like just another movie about the mean streets of South Central and the blue knights that keep the peace, but writer-director David Ayer focuses on the characters while slowly and subtly bringing the plot up from the background. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Intermittently enjoyable but incredibly frustrating. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Ayer clearly thinks he's making a grittily realistic ode to the long arm of the law, yet only the more intimate scenes ring true. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Like a knife in the eye, End of Watch cuts past the cliches of standard police procedurals, serving instead as a visceral ride-along with two thrill-seeking cops. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: As social insight, End of Watch is useless, but as engrossing entertainment, it's irresistible, thanks to Ayer's gift for dialogue, the relentless pacing set by film editor Dody Dorn, and gorgeous performances by Gyllenhaal and Pena ... Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: A portrait of law enforcement under pressure that is as ennobling as it is gritty. Read more