In a blogathon about films releasing in years ending in 2, of course it had to include 1972’s masterpiece The Godfather! Head over to Tranquil Dreams to check out the Nostalgic Italian’s thoughts on this classic film.
Welcome to the first guest post of Ultimate Decades Blogathon 2022. The first guest is a fresh face to our blogathon, Keith from Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian. Let’s all give him a warm welcome. If you haven’t checked out Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian, you definitely should as its a fun personal blog with little bits on TV and movie-related parts. Remember to head over and check out his blog and give him a follow if you haven’t already. Keith is joining us with his thoughts on the 1972 classic The Godfather.
It has been some time since I have been able to participate in a Blogathon, but when I saw that The Ultimate Decades Blogathon was being hosted by my friends over at Tranquil Dreams (Kim) and Drew’s Movie Reviews, I had to take part in it. The basic…
The 2022 Ultimate Decades Blogathon has begun! Yesterday, my co-host Kim got the festivities started with her review 1992’s of Porco Rosso. Today, I’m coming at you with part 2 of the kick-off. With my review of 2012’s gritty buddy cop film End of Watch. I’m excited for the entries this year! For the next two weeks, stop by here and Kim’s blogs to catch them all. Now, on to my review!
Synopsis
Police officers Brian Taylor (jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pena) patrol the city of Los Angeles.
Review To start off, End of Watch is not a movie for the faint of heart. There is so much cursing it would make Michael Scorsese proud and the violence is brutal and uncompromising. Now, if you can sit through all that, there is a wildly entertaining movie to be found underneath. I’m usually not a fan of the “found footage” or documentary style of film making but I actually didn’t mind it here; the style adds an affect that complements the story. Plus, it switches back-and-forth between a hand-camera and a regular camera so the whole thing isn’t unsteady, which makes it more bearable. In a buddy cop movie like End of Watch, the leading pair can make or break the film. Luckily, the two leads of Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena are a perfect duo. The friendship the two of them display is authentic and spectacularly gritty. As the film progresses, you grow attached to both of them and their relationship that makes the Fast franchise’s family motif seem pale in comparison. All of the time spent with Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Pena) culminate in an emotional ending. When rewatching this film, I forgot that it starred America Ferrera. I am a huge fan of the series Superstore, where Ferrera plays the central character. It is a big shift to see her in a role so different than the comedy role I’m used to and she nails the part.
I thought End of Watch was GREAT 😀 It’s violent and unflinching, yet heartfelt and genuine. Gyllenhaal and Pena have unquestionable chemistry and brought the friendship to life. If you can make it through the brutality and vulgarity, you’ll find there is plenty of heart underneath.
Trivia The word “fuck” is used 326 times, making this film tenth in the all-time profanity list. (via IMDb)
Trailer
Cast & Crew
David Ayer – Writer / Director
David Sardy – Composer
Jake Gyllenhaal – Brian Taylor
Michael Pena – Mike Zavala
Natalie Martinez – Gabby
Anna Kendrick – Janet
David Harbour – Van Hauser
Frank Grillo – Sarge
America Ferrera – Orazco
Cody Horn – Davis
Cle Sloan – Mr. Tre
Jaime FitzSimons – Captain Reese
Richard Cabral – Demon
Diamonique – Wicked
Maurice Compte – Big Evil
Alvin Norman – Peanut
Let’s get this party started! Today is the start of this year’s Ultimate Decades Blogathon and kicking us off is my co-host Kim with her review of the Miyazaki film Porco Rosso. Go check it out!
Welcome to the Ultimate Decades Blogathon 2022! This year’s theme (in case you missed the announcement post) are featuring films released in a year ending with -2. The choices coming up from ourselves and our guests span more than a century much to surprise and there are lots of fantastic posts to come up.
With that said, today is the first of two kick-off posts for the blogathon as I start off with my first choice and my awesome co-host Drew from Drew’s Movie Reviews will share his first pick for part 2 of the kick-off over on his blog.
To start things off this year, I decided to check out a fan favorite from Studio Ghibli which really doesn’t get talked about enough but my friends over at Asian Cinema Film Club did rank it as their Top 150 Best Asian Films of All Time. The film…
With the start of the new year comes the first step towards this year’s Ultimate Decades Blogathon! That’s right, my blogathon partner Kim from Tranquil Dreams and I are once again teaming up to host our annual blogathon. Like last year, this year’s Ultimate Decades Blogathon will look at movies throughout the decades that were released with the same last digit as the current year. That means all entries for the blogathon must have been released in years that end in “2”. For example, 2012, 2002, 1992, etc.
Kim and I would love to see you participate in this blogathon. If you are interested in participating here are the details:
Choose and review a movie (or movies) that was released in a year that ends in “2”
Tell us in a comment or via email your selection(s) for the blogathon
Email your entry to Kim, kim.tranquildreams@gmail.com, and me, drewt510@gmail.com, to submit it for the blogathon
Submit your entry on or before Sunday, February 13th. However, if you need more time, please let us know so we can plan accordingly.
The entries will be posted on our sites. If you wish to post your entry on your site as well, please tell us and we can coordinate that together.
The blogathon will begin on Monday, February 21nd
You can add the banner that is at the top of this page to your site to show your participation. And the more the merrier! Feel free to invite others to join the blogathon as well. Use the tag #UltimateDecadesBlogathon on Twitter to help us promote the blogathon. We can’t wait to see everyone’s submissions. 🙂
I hope you are well. It’s the start of a new year, which means the Ultimate Decades Blogathon is just around the corner! Not even a pandemic can stop the blogathon hosted by Kim, aka Tranquil Dreams, and me annually. If you’ve been following previous Ultimate Decades Blogathons, you’ll know that they’ve covered the 70s, 80s, 90, 00s, and 10s. This year, Kim and I have decided to change the format slightly for our sixth outing hosting the blogathon. Rather than focusing on a specific decade like previous years, this year’s Ultimate Decades Blogathon will instead focus on films released in years that end in “1.” For example, 2011, 2001, 1991, etc.
If this format sounds familiar, it’s because the Decades Blogathon that was hosted by Tom and Three Rows Back for several years followed this same theme. With Tom’s blessing, Kim and I have adopted the theme for our blogathon. After five great years with the previous theme, we were looking for ways to add a fresh twist to our annual blogathon.
Kim and I would love to see you participate in this blogathon. If you are interested in participating here are the details:
Choose and review a movie (or movies) that was released in a year that ends in “1”
Tell us in a comment or via email your selection(s) for the blogathon
Email your entry to Kim, kim.tranquildreams@gmail.com, and/or me, drewt510@gmail.com to submit it for the blogathon
Submit your entry before Monday, February 15th. However, if you need more time, please let us know so we can plan accordingly.
The entries will be posted on our sites. If you wish to post your entry on your site as well, please tell us and we can coordinate that together.
The blogathon will begin on Monday, February 22nd
You can add the banner that is at the top of this page to your site to show your participation. And the more the merrier! Feel free to invite others to join the blogathon as well. Use the tag #UltimateDecadesBlogathon on Twitter to help us promote the blogathon. We can’t wait to see everyone’s submissions. 🙂
Drew's Movie Reviews 