Copshop

I see what they were going for here. I don't think they succeeded. If they had, this would have been my kind of movie. But something always feels off or unnatural.

For me, the movie maxes out at "pretty good," goes as low as "kind of stupid," with the bulk of the movie being mediocre. Overall, it's fine. (1 viewing, 1/30/2022)

I was pleased with how this movie was written, I feel it had a great flow and the character building was strong and effective. Joe Carnahan did a great job keeping the watcher interested with both visual and verbal chemistry.

The movie flipped around kind of like Tarantino flips around.

Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo and Alexis Louder add did a great job portraying thier very complex characters. Toby Huss was an added bonus, he does "crazy" very well.

From the very start, the movie takes turns and creates complexity that you can't wait to figure out. When it finally all comes to play, you are in the middle of a roller coaster ride of action and violence comparable to Reservoir Dogs.

While the story didn't leave me guessing for too long, I feel the action, acting and plot were enough to warrant a strong watch.

Grillo, Butler and Louder gave outstanding performances, and although the satirical writing was entertaining, this would've been much better if the story were taken more serious.

Then there's the even bigger issue of the huge hole left in the story, the one which didn't explain any of the twists and turns. It's almost as if the dog ate pages from the middle of the screenplay.

For the 107 minute runtime, there wasn't enough substance. Either lots of minutes needed to be trimmed down, or preferably, more backstory/substance written in. It felt like the story was more about Louder's character, and we're supposed to ignore why the things that are happening to her, are happening.

It's a shame no one picked up on these huge issues, because the directing was excellent, as was the cinematography, score and gore effects. Its a good one-time watch, and thus a 7/10 from me.

Positives:

• While the three male leads have fun with their roles, the star of the show for me was the (unknown to me) Alexis Louder. She delivers a really strong performance here, with a confident stillness in some of her close-ups.

• There are a number of nice lines in the script, some of which made me laugh out loud, which I wasn't expecting to do.

• As a 'park your brain at the door' shoot-em-up, the ending is fun, similar in many ways I thought to the claustrophobic violence of "Free Fire".

Negatives:

• Here's YET another example of a script that is downright insulting to the audience's intelligence. There are some genuine "WTF" moments in this script. I can't go into details without dropping spoilers, but the biggest of these - you'll know it when you see it - is a genuine "HANG ON A MINUTE!!!" moment.

• The sound mix drowns out a lot of the (already drawly and indistinct) dialogue with the incessant music. It's really difficult to pick up on some of the lines.

• There's something surprisingly 'retro' about the whole movie, right down to the use of split screen at the end. The titles feel as if they were from a 70's TV show like Kojak. I could imagine this would work well... if the movie had actually been set in the 70's!

Summary Thoughts on "Copshop": There's almost a good little action film buried in here struggling to get out. Alexis Louder makes a very positive impression with the best parts of the film happening when she is verbally sparring with Butler. But a good action movie needs to keep things credible, albeit on the edge of credibility (e.g. John McClane's lift shaft fall in "Die Hard" is very much on the boundary, if a little over it). Thanks to some ludicrous decisions within the script, this one lost all credibility for me and took me right out of the story.

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This is a fun action movie not a serious crime-drama or thriller...it doesn't take itself too seriously and the cast has fun with the material. Speaking of cast, it has a great one, the writing is good, the actors have fun with it and direction is very solid and ,dare I say it, "cool". It's got that stylized look in the mould of John Wick and is just as enjoyable flick if the watcher will stop being so critical for 2 hours. Not everything has to be high-brow artistic perfection. Like Wick, this is far-fetched, its low-brow and I loved it.