The Rookie

It's clear that upon watching "The Rookie" that Clint Eastwood's heart simply was not with this project - either as a director or an actor. Possibly he only decided to do this "commercial" project so that Warner Brothers would green-light the less commercial "White Hunter Black Heart" that came out the same year. Whatever the reason, Eastwood seems to be going on autopilot in front of and behind the camera. His performance here lacks conviction, and he comes across as a cranky old man instead of a man with grit and determination. And as a director, he slips up multiple times. The action sequences are dull when they should be spectacular - the freeway chase, for example, is flat despite all the vehicles that get destroyed. The night scenes and often the interior scenes are dark and murky, making it hard to see all the details about what's going on.

And what's the deal with the dream sequence at the opening of the movie? In fact, there are a number of script boo-boos that make me surprised that Eastwood didn't demand a rewrite. Why doesn't Eastwood call for backup at the opening action sequence? Why is Raul Julia's past and motives never properly spelled out, and why is Eastwood so determined to bust him? Why do Eastwood and Sheen hardly have any real conversations between them instead of clichéd "tough cop" talk? Also, the slow-moving story at times feels like the writers were writing it as the movie was being shot, instead of using a finished screenplay. It might also explain why key actions and scenes seem to be missing from the finished product.

What really annoyed me most about "The Rookie" was all the swearing. Don't get me wrong - I use the same words in my private life, and I have seen movies I've enjoyed with plenty of swearing. But here, every curse word comes across as forced, as if a child was making this movie and gleefully adding naughty language in an effort to appear tough. It's simply not convincing. Maybe with better direction and a heavily rewritten script, it could have worked. Those things probably would have greatly improved the rest of the movie as well.

"The Rookie" 1990 is a fairly good movie, but it's not great. Strangely, both Eastwood and Sheen delivered their lines terribly: awkward, lame, and uninterested. Sonia Braga isn't all that great in this movie either. Lara Flynn Boyle is so hot, as usual, and I forgot to rate her acting. Raul Julia seems to be the only one capable of saying his lines convincingly and with menace. When a movie is loaded with great, famous actors, and they are doing badly, I am thinking someone else is to blame, and I'm looking at Clint Eastwood. Other than the stiff acting, the movie is fun to watch, and entertaining. When David finally gets mad, and goes off on a mission to rescue Nick, you find yourself saying, "It's about time!" And mentally, you feel yourself saddling up your horse. // The Bushwacker 8/28/2021.

"The Rookie" takes me back to the early 90s when thrillers and action pictures were all set aside for Sunday night, and from time to time, I was allowed to enjoy the movie with my Dad. Give me a few seconds to embrace the nostalgia...

And I remember when I saw good old Clint Eastwood in his car, watching carjackers loading a whole semi-trailer with their recent (and valuable) "purchases", I had but one certitude in mind: his partner would better have a last puff on his buddy's cigars because he'd soon become another "dead on duty" statistic. He wasn't a few days from retirement but he was old, he was Black and well, as Roger Ebert pointed out, the film's title doesn't make you expect a "dazzling work of originality". But I didn't know Ebert at that time, only my classics.

So naturally, the man was shot from behind by the grand theft mastermind, a German (!?) mustached villain played by the late Raul Julia. Of course, it made the matter more personal for Nick Puvloski, a fine and shameless ersatz of Dirty Harry. Did I groan for such a lack of originality from the start? Well, I guess I just enjoyed the chase across the expressway and I knew the film would provide the shot of adrenalin we all expected for a Sunday Night. Of course, Nick doesn't get the villain, but he makes him lose the precious loot, creating another 'personal' grudge on the other side... and the next day, he's assigned a new partner, a young detective named David Ackerman.

The set-up was predictable and the rest of the story was swimming in familiar waters: a tense relationship between the old street-smart cop and the sensitive rookie played by Charlie Sheen, bargains with snitches, television kicked by the bad guy, the sexy villainess, and the spectacular stunts. I didn't see the film for years but my memory wasn't blurry at all, I still had enough scenes stuck in my mind to have it filed in the "memorable films" compartment. I remember Sonia Braga shooting David in the back with that "amateur" line (the ad made me expect he would die for real), I remember David again, getting smoke on his face from a condescending bartender and a few scenes later, returning the favor back with a slightly disproportionate retribution, the spectacularly explosive stunt, natch... and I also liked the final touch at the end with the initial scene being Xeroxed almost line from line.

So when the film ended, we knew it wasn't a masterpiece but we didn't care, we had our share of fun and I gladly saw the re-run a few days later. I was aware of Clint Eastwood's reputation of course and I enjoyed his presence and his interactions with Sheen, but it was long before I became a movie buff, more familiar with his best work and capable to discern between such movies as "The Rookie" and other more valuable achievements. A few years after, on another Sunday night, "A Perfect World" was aired and I was capable to realize that this film played in another league. And we can say in totally objective terms that "The Rookie" doesn't reinvent the wheel, doesn't recreate the same chemistry that made the "Lethal Weapon" series and that it's one of Eastwood's lesser films... but even with that regard, the flaws are still enjoyable to say the least. Don't they call that a guilty pleasure?

I think it says it all. Watching it again, I knew I was supposed to cringe many times. I was surprised to see how wooden and emotionless Sheen played his character, does he have a cramp on his lips that prevents him from smiling from time to time? I was also surprised by Pepe Serna, the ill-fated Tony Montana's drug-deal partner in "Scarface", there was just something in his voice and accent that didn't quite match the lines he was supposed to shout. I was also surprised by how underused Julia and Braga were. These two Latin actors don't need many lines of dialogues to exude their talent (and Braga was an unforgettable femme fatale) but I wish there was some depth added to their relationship, that would have made that 'rape' scene less gratuitous at least. It was also fun to see these guys working for Puvloski and Storm (or Strom?) getting bullets in retribution, talk about insisting that crime doesn't pay. I was also disappointed by the way David's backstory didn't quite add up to his character... precisely because he doesn't even save Nick's ass.

The film had so many flaws I lost track... but my presumption is that Eastwood did it for the money in the way that you honor a command, I read that he had to make a movie for Warner Bros and maybe after two art-house films ("White Hunter, Black Heart" and "Bird") he decided to loosen up a bit and have fun. I'm fine with his idea of having fun and at least, you can tell he put quite a budget, judging by the impressive quality of the stunts work. But there's a reason the film didn't quite take off with the box-office although it was a mild success, it's not because it faced the competition of "Home Alone" because action pictures like "Total Recall" or "Die Hard 2" did better, so maybe it had to be a not so good word-of-mouth. But it was still good enough to deliver what was expected to an audience who knew what to expect.

It could be better given its talented director and its set of villains, it's unfortunate that they had to put so much effort on the hardest part and not tried to densify the story a little, but I'll end with the same nostalgic tone that opened this review, "The Rookie" wasn't a theater film but the perfect movie to rent in VHS for a fun Saturday afternoon.

A considerably generic cop movie, with some clichés and too typical characters (experience vicious policeman and his naive and idealistic young partner), mildly funny gags and not always good dialogues, and lot of action with cars, shootings and explosions. Certainly not among the best of Eastwood's films, due an uninspired shallow script, not to mention how problematic are those stories in which policemen who "bypass" law and kill surrended criminals are the heroes, and all the Latin characters are the bad guys. However, Eastwood himself is nice in his cigar-smoker character, who is indeed quite similar to other hot-headed policemen he played in his career, such as Wes Block, Frank Horrigan, Terry McCaleb, and obviously "dirty" Harry Callahan. Besides, that, the Latin criminal core duo is amazing: cold Raul Julia and gorgeous badass "Bond-girl-like" Sonia Braga. Then 25-year Charlie Sheen completes the unusual top cast by playing the role that names the movie (and his wife character, then 20-years old Lara Flynn Boyle, was beautiful and had good thrilling moments).

This wasn't ever meant to be a deep dive into the Serpico psyche of cops!

Just a simple action/buddy movie with a few laughs and some ok action.

Julia is great in it though.

From memory (hope I'm not mistaken) Sheen was basically offered the movie by Eastwood to help straighten him out as his recent success was reportedly going to his nose.

And yes the real crime committed in this movie IS the colour of the car!!!