L'enquête interdite

I can't find any interest in this movie. Boring, predictable, slow, dumb etc. Maybe if a cinema historian 100 years after asked a sample of all the cliches in a cop movie, it could be a contestant. It uses them all. From plot cliches to character cliches to location cliches. In fact there was a point where I was thinking which one I hadn't seen yet and tada! in the next scene it was there!

This flick is like putting a pan of water on the stove and not turning the heat up high enough - it gets warm, but it never boils.

The script is not bad - worthy cop noir wise-guy banter; and the editing sets a pretty snappy pace - until it all gets a bit too snarled up and, as a viewer, you lose track of who's who not to mention who's done what to who and entire characters just drop out of sight. Photography & sets seem to be desperately trying to capture a 1970's flavor LA - lots of stark old forlorn concrete and iron abandoned industrial sites and hosed down wet=slick nighttime street scenes and setting lit in noir relief, but it all never rises to high cinematic art, for sure.

In terms of the acting, Peter Weller is just not intensely street-edgy enough to carry the main cop role which, basically, has to carry the whole film - I kept thinking, WWSMcQD; i.e., what would Steve McQueen do - and Weller never did that.

Lots of other good actors in supporting - almost cameo - roles - David Caruso, Bruce Weitz, Sela Ward, Henry Sanders, even Megan Mullaly - but alas, none of the male characters are plausibly crazy derring-do and none of the women characters are sizzlingly sexy, so, as I said at the outset, the pot just never boils.

Peter Weller's performance can carry pretty much anything. He's not a household name so he gets stuck mostly in B films and TV movies like this one, but they're all pretty decent, if made on a moderate to low budget. Point is its worth watching for him, as well as the score by Tangerine Dream. Not a bad flick at all.