Cops and drug dealers, good guys and bad guys, that’s End of Watch. A buddy-movie with firepower. A wisecracking story of everyday police folk filmed through the over-familiar device of mobile cameras.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena are cops whose dedication to police work and to watching each others backs makes them more than colleagues. They’re best of friends. And End of Watch see them taking down petty criminals and gun-wielding nutters while sending each other up and just getting through the day. But the duo are marked by a drug cartel that wants to end their watch. Permanently.

End of Watch is funny, absorbing, unpredictable and tense. Forget that this is just a heroes and villains storyline. Ignore that it could be a heart-pumping promo for the police force. Gyllenhaal and Pena invest their characters with such cheeky realism, it’s hard not to root for them – especially when the heat is on.

Sudden violence and the damage done to their colleague coppers sears you with fear for the boys themselves. And with a title like End of Watch, just how will it end? It’s a nervy ride. And as the japes and scrapes fall away to leave only a deadly fight for life and justice, it’s an edge of seat experience.

Maybe this is what it’s like to be a dedicated cop on the streets of a violent city. If so, End of Watch takes you right into the heart of darkness – and out the other side.