August 11, 2013

Officers Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Peña) are LA beat cops, partnered up a long time. We watch them in action via a number of set pieces, and see that they're cynical enough to interpret the rules as necessary but still by a long, long stretch good and decent cops that will risk their lives in carrying out their duties at a moment's notice. Zavala is already blissfully happily married with a baby on the way, Taylor has just met … read the rest.

Officers Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Peña) are LA beat cops, partnered up a long time. We watch them in action via a number of set pieces, and see that they're cynical enough to interpret the rules as necessary but still by a long, long stretch good and decent cops that will risk their lives in carrying out their duties at a moment's notice. Zavala is already blissfully happily married with a baby on the way, Taylor has just met a sweet Irish gal and over the course of the film we see their relationship blossom and grow. These two men are like the closest of brothers. It's all good to see. One day, their dedication to the job causes them to stumble in over their pay grade into a much larger drug cartel and human trafficking operation than regular beat cops would usually encounter. Homeland Security agents appear, having apparently already been monitoring the situation, and warn our boys that they've bloodied the wrong noses, and they'd better lay low.

I HATE a dumb actioner, and this ain't that. Well, it DOES contain all of the standard tropes and cliches (buddy cops, stumbling in over their heads into some drug cartel hoo-haa; the bad guys all being relentlessly bad 24/7, permanently scowling, growling and barking at one another, etc.), but done ever-so-well; reminiscent to me of how [REC] didn't contain anything new or fresh whatsoever, but did all of what it did very well indeed and it came across as fresh as a result.

It's shot mostly cinéma vérité-style, utilising a plotline in which officer Taylor is shooting a documentary piece for a student course he's taking. However, it switches between between first and third-person narrative a la Modern Family, but when it switches to third-person it retains a very documentary-like feel, so it all feels quite seamless.

It wilts a little just past the halfway mark but picks up enormously for the final third. Also, when it's violent (which isn't often), it's unexpectedly VERY violent.

I'd give it an 8/10 and recommend that it's worth at least a look. And I'm not a fan of L.A. guns/bloods/crips/gangs/urban/drugs/cops films.

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August 25, 2019

A good duo at the forefront of this thing, but I don't especially care for the half-assed documentary schematic or, you know... cops.

_Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a _

January 2, 2026

Realistically, a decent movie, with a lot of odd choices. The main attraction (aside from its cast—<i>Anna Kendrick is the only reason I watched this</i>), is its cinematography: originally a premise of a buddy cop movie made out of bits and pieces of self taped/body cam/found footage style videos, yet, there is an omnipresent, shaky camerawork that takes you away from that in order to properly showcase the environment and depth of these developi… read the rest.

Realistically, a decent movie, with a lot of odd choices. The main attraction (aside from its cast—<i>Anna Kendrick is the only reason I watched this</i>), is its cinematography: originally a premise of a buddy cop movie made out of bits and pieces of self taped/body cam/found footage style videos, yet, there is an omnipresent, shaky camerawork that takes you away from that in order to properly showcase the environment and depth of these developing characters and their stories, while still trying to mimic these are natural, spontenous, humanly shot moments for the most part—and, at some point, even that is lost. Simply, the cinematography is inconsistent, and loosely justified for the case of the self recorded... vlogs (what're the chances of both cops and gangs vlogging their own confrontation?). Makes it lose a little bit of its seriousness by the time one gets to the end. That, and the insane pacing it sets.

Thematically, it's lukewarm. It didn't necessarily feel like it sweetened or glorified either side of the central conflict (meh, maybe the fire scene), but it does condone one more than the other. Is this copaganda? I can only affirm cops or adjacent people (especially men aspiring to vigilantes), would see this and think this is an honest and honorable representation of Law Enforcement, even if half the movie is spent establishing the basic notion that they are all uneducated, looking for easy money, on a power trip and generally stupid.

As I write this, and the more I think about it, I being to question if I actually even liked this.

Performaces were great. Though, again, with the pacing it sets and the center focus on the cop duo, all those external relationships built around them cannot conform any real attachment for the viewer.

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