Bad Boys.
I missed this when it was in theaters, and that was my bad, because End of Watch is a great flick (hey, it's by the writer of 2001's excellent Training Day!) rating 85% on RottenTomatoes. Come for young hotshot LAPD officers Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Peña) as they go on duty in gang-and-cartel-ridden South Central LA, but stay for a surprising dose of humor and engaging depiction of personalities. I was expecting a gritty crime drama with lots of action, and the flick is definitely that, but it is also, at its core, a buddy movie in the best sense of the term; it's a flick about two cops who are as much brothers as partners, and as riveting as they are when they're chasing criminals, they're even better when they're just interacting with each other (these guys have some of the best on-screen chemistry, banter, and badinage I've seen in recent memory). Gyllenhaal is great and Peña simply superb as they create their characters as touchingly real individuals who make you care about them even through (or even because of) all their flaws and foibles and locker room language as they go out day after day into a dangerous world. You can keep your insipid rom-coms, Hollywood marketing-to-girls department. I would rather watch movies like End of Watch any day. End of Watch runs 109 minutes and is rated R for violence, language, drug use, and disturbing images.
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