Flashfire

1st watched 5/13/2007 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Elliot Silverstein): Good cops going bad is the theme for this little better than average move that was obviously shot with a very low budget, but actually has credible performances by the two leads, Billy Zane & Kristin Minter. They seem to work well together, but it's not enough to pull the lazy storyline out of it's mediocrity. Zane's partner is killed while being with a call girl that he's consistently been spending time with since leaving his wife. The call girl, played by Minter, is considered a suspect in the murder and has to go in hiding after a narrow escape. Zane's character is taken off the case and put in the legal department, but of course he doesn't stop investigating(which is typical in these movies). His boss, played by Louis Gossett Jr., appears to be a friend initially and is supposedly protecting him but in a sad twist -- he of course is corrupt, too. I liked the ending, which I won't give away -- but it does put a nice personal touch on the movie, which otherwise would be a typical cops gone bad movie with the always "one and only one" exception. I don't know why there's a pre-occupation in Hollywood to make the decent cop a lonely abnormality but that's the way it normally is. I hope in real life it's the other way around. Oh well, this isn't real life and it's just a movie and a pretty mediocre one at that.

The story starts out with a firebug on the loose, a little boy takes pictures of the so called fire nut and the plot thickens. Bill Zane, (Jack Flinder), who is a detective and a super cop who looks for details, winds up sending his partner to the Big House. The police squad does not like him very much, however, Louis Gossett,Jr.(Ben Durand),"Window",'05 is the police captain and takes him under his wing and even promotes him. Kristin Mintor,(Lisa Cates),"Pissed",'05 plays a very sexy role, more like a prostitute, but one guy simply don't care and Bill Zane gets really involved with Lisa on a swinging boat and plenty of action. Good acting by Louis Gossett who held the picture together.

Fires,murder,shootouts,corruption,sex, a beautiful damsel in distress, and Billy Zane,Louis Gossett jr good movie

This movie seemed like it cobbled together the least exciting parts from previous made-for-TV cop movies. The plot is stereotypical, much like everything else: cop's partner gets killed, cop gets involved with the sole witness (naturally a beautiful female prostitute), cop has family problems, cop uncovers corruption within his own police department, etc. etc.

Normally, this kind of plot is often used in b-movies, but usually there is some attempt to inject a certain level of excitement. Here we get a Z-grade DTV flick which simply goes through the motions. Naturally, there is a sex scene between the cop and prostitute, and also some in-family disagreements regarding what he should do with his life. Both of these are included simply to pad out this lethargic non-thriller to a mandoratory running length of 90 minutes. When not boring us with pointless subplots, every cliche in the book is used and the dull screenplay generates the impression the writer penned it all in one evening. Such contrivances include the prostitute going to her best friend's house (she is so obviously a future victim the moment she appears in the film), the bad guy who arranges a meeting with the cop in order to spill the beans on his superiors (evidently another corpse-in-waiting), the cop contacting the person he mosts trusts on the police force once he figures out what's going on (yep, you've guessed it: his buddy is in league with the bad guys). And so on. Believe me, this stuff is even more boring to watch than reading this summary.

There's also an attempt to suggest the femme fatale might be involved in the conspiracy somehow (which would be ridiculous since the bad guys tried to kill her on several occasions). However, the movie isn't smart enough to pull any twists and basically settles for a dull shoot-out between the goodies and baddies, during which a grand total of two shots are fired (truly riveting stuff). Then this pitiful excuse for a thriller abruptly ends.

Eccentric Brit rates it 3/10