I gotta say, I was never really buying the selling point for David Ayer‘s End of Watch, a story that centers on a pair of Los Angeles police officers Taylor and Zavala (Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena) as they patrol the streets of south central Los Angeles.
The big “twist” to this is that the story will be told through footage from the handheld HD cameras of the police officers, gang members, surveillance cameras and on-the-street citizens.
It’s an idea that should certainly elevate the material, but haven’t we been seeing stuff like this from the television show “Cops” since the late ’80s? The chances of convincing character development that doesn’t seem forced seems unlikely to me. Everything will have that “oh, isn’t it coincidental there was a camera in the vicinity” feel to it, alleviating a lot of the presumed thrill of having it caught on camera and presented raw and real.
As far as Ayer is concerned, his major claim to fame is having written the screenplay for Training Day and one of several writers on The Fast and the Furious, but since then his first two directorial outings — Harsh Times (which he also wrote) and Street Kings — were hardly well received. Of the two, I’ve seen Street Kings and was dramatically unimpressed and in my review was actually rather kind.
Watching about 90 seconds of the trailer I will say End of Watch, however, looks like it might have a solid police beat story, but I really am not a fan of using a gimmick to sell the idea. Just sort of cheapens it if you ask me.
End of Watch co-stars Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera and Frank Grillo and hits theaters on September 28.
