Author: Verse

There are a lot of neat parts here but it just doesn’t come together well, and I think that falls very heavily on the direction and the script.

Everything else ranges from serviceable to good. I am not a big JLo listener/watcher but I think I could see people wrongly putting it on her shoulders because her face is all over it. None of the actors felt like they were slacking off and the fx house did some neat work.

A good movie but a little too cleanly puzzled together. The scripts cleanliness takes front stage to character motivations. This makes for some admittedly fun one liners and impressive scenes, but it feels very Hollywood by the end. Even the wrapping up feels like everyone says the right thing in unnatural ways to get it to the overall cool idea. This leaves Dallas Roberts, as the money man, to just be super agreeable at every step.

This also may be the cleanest R rated film. I am not advocating for going Bone Tomahawk, but it detracts how every death is so visually polite. Especially when quite a lot of characters are motivated by dealing and avoiding death out.

If that seems tough on the film, it is only because I really like certain parts. Ben Foster is fantastic and chews what he can with his dialogue. Peter Fonda really nailed his holyer-than-thou role. Bale is awesome and lets scenes breath around him. It is always fun to see Alan Tudyk, even if his character felt very cut down in editing here or in need of some actual doctoring scenes along the journey.

Some thrills are along the way to the inevitable arrival at exactly where you expect to arrive. The first half had some better carry than the closeout.

There is a post-credits scene but if you missed it, you didn’t miss anything.

I saw Appaloosa years ago, and now again, and I still enjoyed it a lot. It is a very slow film with a lot of character, dialogue, and patience. Life slowly rolls by and even the action has a patient, audience-aware, build up. I admire its ability to eschew being over dramatized and keep interest.

Dastmalchian is awesome in this and the movie sails along by simply being so unique. It is intriguing the whole way through, even though a little wanting is present by the end.

End of Watch dances all over the line of over-the-top and plausible reality. Its characters are immensely watchable, even down to the supporting cast like Frank Grillo and David Harbour.

The character-perspective camera work captures the chaos in a unique way and furthers character development. However, it is also a distraction as the film explains in unbelievable ways why various characters are recording things. Ultimately though it feels unnecessary as the film mixes this documentary style with regular camera work.

Some of the script is really good, genuinely eliciting laughs, and some feels written with a hammer. The hammer can be said for a lot of things though, even outside of dialogue, with a movie that starts off with its lead cops immediately breaking their cover to walk up in a shoot out for the cool guys factor.

A really rough spot is the curbside gangsters, a constant villainous element throughout. These characters were comically mustache twirly. That could have worked fine, but they got too much screen time and it only greatly detracted.

It would be hard to have a bad time with End of Watch, just be ready to suspend some disbelief.