End of Watch
Open Road Films | Release Date: September 21, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 21, 2012
Mythic, thrilling and brilliantly made motion picture. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliSep 20, 2012
The best scenes are filmed inside the cruiser, dashboard shots that face inward instead of out, catching Gyllenhaal and Peña in moments so playful and true they make all other buddy cops look bogus by comparison. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSep 19, 2012
One of the best police movies in recent years, a virtuoso fusion of performances and often startling action. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumSep 19, 2012
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 full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 20, 2012
David Ayer, the writer of "Training Day," director of "Street Kings," writer/director of "Harsh Times," does not make movies about princesses with witchy curses, about yuppie commitment-phobes, about talking plush toys. His territory is narrow, but he owns it: cops, in Los Angeles. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 20, 2012
The problem with End of Watch, a gripping police drama, is director David Ayer's stylistic decision to shoot nearly the entire movie tripod-less. Or, to put it another way, there's a whole lotta shakin' going on. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 21, 2012
I wish that the Mexican drug cartel subplot was not so overwrought and Oliver Stone-ish, and the decision to shoot much of the film "Cops"-style is also problematic. But the film puts you right inside an everyday inferno and, to its credit, doesn't turn down the heat. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly RichardsNov 19, 2012
It's a collection of cop-movie clichés but presented with sufficient flair and strong performances that the ride is enough, even if it's on rails. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 22, 2012
There's nothing in David Ayer's cop drama End of Watch that you haven't already seen, but the film has moments so riveting that you might not care too much. Read full review
80
NPRBob MondelloSep 21, 2012
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 full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeySep 20, 2012
A visceral story of beat cops that is rare in its sensitivity, rash in its violence and raw in its humor. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanSep 20, 2012
If Ayer had taken as much care with his bad guys as he does with his leads (and their deftly sketched wives and colleagues, played by Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera and Frank Grillo, among others), he might have crafted a seamless picture. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbySep 19, 2012
Ayer should have dropped the movie-within-a-movie, which is confusing in an unproductive way -- we share the men's point of view without it. [24 Sept. 2012, p. 98]
80
Village VoiceChuck WilsonSep 19, 2012
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 Peña. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 19, 2012
The action and the chemistry is stronger than the story, because Gyllenhaal and Peña are good. In that respect End of Watch works better as a series of vignettes held together somewhat loosely by a larger story. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondSep 15, 2012
Easily one of the year's best films and one of the best ever in the well-worn cop genre. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 9, 2012
Ultimately, the mock-doc device works because Gyllenhaal and Pena so completely reinvent themselves in-character. Instead of wearing the roles like costumes or uniforms, they let the job seep into their skin, a feat without which "End of Watch's" pseudo-reality never would have worked. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickSep 20, 2012
America Ferrara ("Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'') turns in an image-changing role as a tough lesbian officer who develops a grudging admiration for our heroes. Read full review
75
MovielineAlison WillmoreSep 20, 2012
The two cops are cocky and funny and young, and it still takes a good half hour to accept that they may be as forthright and dedicated to their jobs as they appear to be. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 20, 2012
Unlike many action thrillers where the viewer is fairly certain that no real harm can come to the protagonists, such is never the case here. In this gritty ride-along, we sense that anything can happen, which adds to the propulsive momentum of a riveting story. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 20, 2012
A muscular, maddening exploitation movie embellished with art-house style and anchored by solid performances. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 10, 2012
In the last 15 minutes of the film, he burns up some of the credibility he established by not pushing extreme situations too far earlier on. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 19, 2012
End of Watch is more than the sum of its parts, though; it ends on a downbeat note, but that's something I've come to expect from Ayer. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanSep 21, 2012
It's powerful stuff, but I almost felt like I needed an intermission. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 20, 2012
End of Watch gives you the savage whoosh of being on a job that can get you killed. Sins of cop clichés can be forgiven when a movie pays honest tribute to police on the line. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisSep 20, 2012
The camera is just everywhere, from the point of view of everything. When I left the movie the other night, people complained of seasickness. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenSep 20, 2012
No doubt, these twin saviours are a likeable tandem, and they bear their cross lightly. Still, End of Watch suffers from no end of sanctimony. Sainthood is all well and fine but it ain't drama and, on screen at least, the question cries out: Where's a corrupt cop when you need him? Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 20, 2012
The drawback of the film's visual approach, however, is a considerable one. The relentless first-person shooting in End of Watch - figurative and literal - is less about YouTube factuality than it is about Xbox gaming reconfigured for the movies. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithNov 25, 2012
Forceful and arresting, Ayer's follow-up to "Harsh Times" and "Street Kings" sees him confidently playing to his strengths. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinSep 19, 2012
Gyllenhaal and Peña'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 full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnSep 12, 2012
By virtue of its style and high stakes scenario, End of Watch is impressively tense, but then so are most episodes of "COPS," which don't suffer from the forced melodrama found here. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissSep 24, 2012
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 full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 20, 2012
Shallow down inside, End of Watch is a music-video Frappuccino of quick cuts, sparkling banter, serial crises, grisly violence and tongue-jerk profanity. But the film is exciting, in its manipulative way, and exhausting. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 18, 2012
It almost becomes comical to count the number of "who's holding the camera now?" reverse shots that the filmmaker haphazardly inserts to propel the story forward. Such visual ineptitude, like much else in this tediously cocky enterprise, is downright criminal. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 10, 2012
Despite the violence and procedural detail, this is about as gritty as Dixon of Dock Green. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineGlenn Heath Jr.Sep 19, 2012
End of Watch is pure frat-boy fantasy, the video game to Southland's great American novel. Read full review
0
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 20, 2012
End of Watch is a repellent movie, first for its shaky-cam conceit rendering much of the action incomprehensible, and finally for seeking to entertain viewers through the thuggish execution of a police officer. Read full review
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