• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
  
• Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
  
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
  
• Subtitles Color: White
  
• Region: ABC (Region-Free)
  
• Rating: R
  
• Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + DVD)
• Digital Copies: UltraViolet & iTunes Digital Copy
  
• Run Time: 110 Mins.
  
• Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
  
• Blu-ray Release Date: January 22, 2013
• List Price: $34.98

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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Film

[Rating:2.5/5]

With End of Watch, writer/director David Ayer returns to a subject he seems to have near obsessive desire to write about – the LAPD and the gritty underbelly of the city they police. Over the years he’s given us such movies as Training Day, Harsh Times, S.W.A.T., and Dark Blue, each of them dealing with the same subject matter in some form or the other. So what makes this latest film stand out from those other films or any other cop film for that matter? Well, the answer, I’m afraid to say is, not much, not much at all.

Filmed in what is the latest craze amongst filmmakers, the “found footage” or guerrilla filmmaking style, which is to say, we get a lot of shaky camera movements, camcorder quality, and a bogus excuse why it’s being done that why (one of the cops we’re following is filming it for his college law degree courses). The two LAPD cops in question, Officer Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) (the law student) and Officer Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) are best buds. Tasked with patrolling the the most crime-riddled streets of L.A., the two friends spend their days on the beat like typical guys, ribbing one another about everything from their choice in music to their women. Zavala, a family man, pushes Taylor toward settling down with the right girl, the ever-understanding Janet (Anna Kendrick) who is welcomed into the “family” of blue. All seems well for the two easygoing officers, until they run afoul of the L.A. Street gangs after a couple of routine busts they stumble into – one an illegal human trafficking ring the other, money laundering and illegal assault weapons. It makes them unlikely heroes, but leaves them targets for assassination. The gangs are connected to an international drug cartel that wants them out of the picture.

Once we make it to the halfway point of this film, if the shaky camera movements haven’t given you seizures or motion sickness, there’s not much to see. We already know what’s going on, the story is rather thin, and the dialogue, well, if your idea of hip and gritty is an F-bomb every few seconds, then this is the film for you. There’s nothing intelligent or “real” here, however. The haphazard way that these two cops just stumble and fall into intrigue and heroism leaves the film wanting. There’s also some strained insight into the rough life of a cop and the difficulties of being a police wife, but it is so vaguely explored, it’s just lip service, really.

Were it not for the easy chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Peña who really do convey a true sense of being honest buddies who have each other’s backs, this film would be wholly unwatchable, and barely above pointless. Despite all the camera tricks and “urban” music in the soundtrack to give this a film a sense of legitimacy, End of Watch come across as no more than a glossy, big budget Hollywood version of the TV series Cops.

Video Quality

[Rating:3/5]

End of Watch was shot in HD with a variety of HD cameras, hardly any of them ‘technically’ cinematographic grade devices. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon EOS 7D high end digital still cameras were deployed for their 1080p/24 video capabilities. These are becoming quite common in the filmmaking world for independent productions and for use as “crash cams,” replacing more expensive film models for practical effects. The Canon XA-10 camcorder and GoPro HD Hero were also utilized. Only the Silicon Imaging SI-2K Mini and Nano could technically be described as cinematographic grade cameras, although their small sizes and 2K resolution limit is hardly what we think of as the typical motion picture camera. They were mainly used for their versatility and POV shots. This transfer, an AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement, and entire film is indicative of the production style employed and the equipment used. Nothing looks particularly great or reference level, the contrast isn’t really strong, gamma is a little high, black levels are greyish, and there is a lot of video noise and aliasing in the source. It’s not an issue with the compression or encodement, per se, it just is what it is.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4.5/5]

The soundtrack is far better, which makes for an odd coupling to be sure. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack is well balanced, really surrounds you in sounds of the streets, gunshots ring out through the soundstage, the hip hop inspired music has a lot of low end, and dialogue is clear.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:2.5/5]

The bulk of the extras here are the over forty-five-minutes of deleted scenes plus the audio commentary from Ayer. Everything else is just very short, promotional feeling featurettes that aren’t necessary viewing.

• Feature commentary with writer/director David Ayer
• Deleted Scenes (1.85:1; 1080p/24; 00:46:41)
• Fate with a Badge (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:02:10)
• In the Streets (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:02:10)
• Women on Watch (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:02:00)
• Watch Your Six (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:02:35)
• Honors (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:02:04)
• DVD – Standard DVD of the feature included.
• UltraViolet & iTunes Digital Copy

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3.5/5]

Unless you haven’t already had enough of this “found footage” guerrilla-style filmmaking or can’t get enough of Cops reruns, then I suggest giving End of Watch a pass. It brings nothing new to the cop film genre and feels wholly fabricated.

Additional Screen Captures

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BestBuy.com:

Purchase End of Watch on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe

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[amazon-product]B008220CTW[/amazon-product]

BestBuy.com:

Purchase End of Watch on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

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