This is a really great movie, with some disturbing imagery. David Ayer wanted to capture the everyday life of police officers in one of the most criminal districts: South Central Los Angeles, in a way that hadn't been done before; of course there are many movies that play in South Central Los Angeles, such as Colors, Boyz N the Hood, South Central, or Training Day, and especially compared to Colors you can find a number of similarities. Still, Ayer makes good on his promise: Similar to Colors we get a movie that in the first half seems totally random, we follow two around two cops, experiencing a lot of ugly stuff and soon some of these events lead to bigger events that unfold dramatically.

Different to Colors, however, Ayer focuses on the two cops. These are both young and in the beginning of their careers, and as two young guys their heads are full of shit, while their hearts are still in the right place. Even though being highly trained and professional when it comes to the job, they fool around a lot, and often just push their damn luck. They seem different at the beginning, yet they call each other brothers and you soon get to know why: Being in a car with each other nearly 8hrs a day makes for a really special friendship. In the Interviews Peña says that a third of the movie plays in the car, and I don't feel like that's an over-exaggeration. What's also interesting about this movie is, that for probably half of the movie "found footage" like shots where used. Gyllenhaals character "Brian Taylor" is filming his everyday for a class project, and both carries a camcorder with him as well as having his partner and himself wearing body cams on their shirts. Besides we often also get "ego perspective", especially when they move in somewhere with weapons drawn. Other great "found footage" like shots include cameras mounted on long weapons filming towards the actors, dashbord cams, etc.

These are however mixed with real camera work, and different to most found footage horror movies they are not used as long single shots, but all these different approaches are edited together to form great scenes. The pacing switches from slow scenes that are mostly driven by dialogue or off-duty scenes that seem mundane (e.g. the day that Brian has off with his girlfriend and has a special date planned from which we only get to see the drive with both of them singing to music playing on the radio), but that in their very special ways convey so much emotions, that makes you really love all of these characters, with all their quirks and idiosyncrasies. In contrast we get these highly thrilling on-duty scenes that are either packed with suspense or with fast pace action. Acting-wise we get a number of high ranking actors such as Anna Kendrick, Maurice Compte, Frank Grillo or David Harbour who just play small supporting roles with minimal screen time. The main focus lies on Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, and both are so good and excellent in their roles that you cannot imagine this movie with any other actor in their place.

So all in all this is a shocking movie with a - to me - really unexpected ending that shocked me. However, I found it could have had an even deeper impact if the ending was slightly different, and I would have loved it if it wasn't for the last scene.

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 _

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.