Detective Knight: Rogue

This movie is the first part of a trilogy of action movies featuring Bruce Willis, who has unfortunately retired from show business due to some kind of dementia.

From the very first second, this movie wants to be an action thriller from the "good old days" and really doesn't leave out any clichés. Cool sayings, an ageing cop who loves working alone and nasty villains. Edward Drake tries to give the latter in particular a little more depth in his film, but doesn't get past the usual clichés. A pity, really. And unfortunately, these words can also be used to describe the entire movie.

The actors really try to make the best of the thin script, but it's so badly written that most of the dialog sounds like it was written by an AI.

Detective Knight: Rouge is directed by Edward Drake and stars Bruce Willis, Beau Mirchoff, Jimmy Jean Louis and Michael Eklund. The story follows veteran detective James Knight (Willis) who pursues a group of thieves from LA to New York after they shoot his partner but soon finds his past conflicting with his current case.

So by now we all know the unfortunate state Bruce Willis has been in which led him to make a bunch of DTV dreck the last few years. Since we're nearing the end of his career I decided to review his last few DTV flicks. I'm pretty sure he has three more in the can (with this being the first in an already filmed trilogy) and Paradise City with John Travolta set to release within a month.

I was a bit surprised to see that this was actually a little more polished and competently helmed than some of Bruce Willis' recent DTV movies. However, as part one of an already planned trilogy, Detective Knight: Rogue suffers from a convoluted plot and a lack of screen time for its main protagonist. Sadly, we don't see Bruce for long stretches of time as the movie focuses on the thieves, as well as a few other side characters that are intertwined with the plot. It's a shame because Bruce is actually giving an okay performance in this. He's in a lot of shots and only on occasion is it noticeable that he had his body double fill in for him. This movie really felt a little more cinematic and you can tell Edward Drake and co. Put more time and effort into this one.

I do also have to give a shoutout to the fact that Bruce does get a cheer-worthy John McClane-like one-liner at the very end that made the entire movie worth sitting through. It's a brief moment that makes me wish more of this movie were like that.

L. A. police detective James Knight (Bruce Willis) and his partner track down four masked armed robbers and a gunfight ensues. His partner is heavily wounded and Knight vows to track down the perpetrators. The group is led by Casey Rhodes (Beau Mirchoff), a former star quarterback who lost everything in a point shaving scandal. They are backed by bookie gangster Winna (Michael Eklund) who has a corrupt past connection with Knight.

Bruce is a step slow and more robotic. It shows in the first shootout scene. He barely is able to get down. With his illness, I was surprised that he actually attempted an action scene. During the last act, they actually put a mask on his character so a stuntman could do his work. They tried very hard to cover for him. In fact, he's only the Lead in Name Only (LINO). The lead is really Beau Mirchoff. I like him and I like his character. He has depth. He's great. The situation with Bruce is obvious and distracting.

A gang of criminals stick up an armoured truck in LA. It leads to a shootout with some cops. This includes Detective James Knight (Bruce Willi) and his partner Fitzgerald (Lochlyn Munro.) The latter is badly wounded.

Now partnered with ex CIA operative now turned detective Sango (Jimmy Jean-Louis.) They arrive in New York to follow a lead regarding phantom chartered flights.

On their radar is a crooked bookie Winna who also uses ex athletes fallen on hard times for his robberies. One of them is ex pro footballer Casey Rhodes who was one of the gang members involved in the LA heist.

This is an inferior version of Heat. There are lots of location shooting involving guns. The story is dumb. You have scenes where LA cops hang their cop badges around their necks interrogating people in New York where they have no jurisdiction.

The film wants to give a psychological edge by focussing on some of the characters such as Rhodes who turned to crime to provide for his family.

The plot is not very fluid. There is a concentration on other characters as the nominal lead actor was too ill to be in many of the scenes. There is once scene near the end of the film where Willis is replaced by a stuntman with an animal mask on.

Seriously, this has gone beyond abuse, it's just sad what he's appearing in for "movies".

With such amazing lines as "well it's not much of a stretch to go from being an ex quarterback to bank robber"..... like what the actual f????

It was shot reasonably well, but nothing in the plot made any sense.

One amazing gem is how these footballers are all pro tacticians, ok let's roll with that without questions, but as a "diversion" his buddy goes and robs a bank, demands they call 911 AND demand that all the cops come out..... So of course, Willis and his unintelligible partner who are from a different city and not even part of the police force.... they go too. Which means of course that of the dozens of cops to respond, not one can hit anything until they draw pistols.

Don't waste your time, even reading this review is wasting more time on the movie than it's worth.