Off to the movies again. This time we watched End of Watch. I guess you’d call it an action thriller with obsessive use of handheld cameras. What can I say about this film?
- It is not the feel-good movie of the year
- Most used word in the film = fuck
- Police work is not for everyone.
- Toronto is a way better place to live than Los Angeles.
It’s well done, very well done, but I left the theatre with my senses dulled by the excessive violence.
27th Street 
I get a little queasy just thinking about hand-held camera films.
I quite agree, street. It can be effective when the height of the action calls for it. But what you saw illustrates what I am talking about, a handheld camera used in the attempt to make an entirely ineffective film effective.
I enjoyed it, but the handheld camera work literally nauseated me after a while (I lived through Dogme 95, I can live through this, right?). Richard found the whole thing “too Hollywood”. I loved the acting, though, and thought this was one of the best buddy-cop movies I’ve seen. Real “chemistry” between the leads. (No, not in a Brokeback Mountain way, I mean an “I’ve got your back” way. Hold on, that didn’t sound right, either…Well, I’m sure you know what I mean. A very touching relationship. Agh! That sounded even worse. I’ll just stop now.)
Yes they did a great job developing the relationship throughout the film. In a way I liked the film but nagging at me is the thought that I didn’t need to see all the negative hopeless violence.
You know something, street? This handheld camera mania is a phase that we are just going to have to live through. It will end. Mark my words. I may be dead when that happens, but it will end.
It can be effective, but in this case it wouldn’t stop