Dead bang - A colpo sicuro

I shied away from this film initially, due to its low IMDB rating at the time, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It's based on actual events, yet the story has all the right elements of a great action film. Don Johnson's LA cop is up against tremendous odds, a renegade, a drunk, lonely, and yet an entirely likeable character. Whether you like Johnson (the actor), or Frankenheimer (the director), or action films (the genre) in general, give this film a chance. It's almost perfect. Completely underrated by the scoring on this site.

7.5 out of 10

Ignored, but lively and well-paced crime movie with D*n *o*nso* as the every-cliche-in-the-book burned out cop. He's on the edge! He doesn't play by the rules! He has a drink problem! His marriage is on the rocks! He's a gay Nazi! Well, maybe not the last one, but there's plenty of nasty Nazis in this to hiss at. They're none-too-bright though. Would they really risk murdering a bar full of people for no reason on the way to such an important meeting? The hero cop's beating of suspects is repugnant but the humour of the film is irresistible. Great scenes include the Sheriff (nobody f***s with him!), "Don't puke! Don't puke!", The psychiatrist (he looks just like Woody Allen!) and last, but no means least, the FBI stuffed-shirt ( he's a christian, no joke!)

The ending is a little routine but the rest rocks in an unassuming way.

Another one of those TV stars who moved into movies this sadly has been put alongside with Caruso's JADE but on closer inspection all movies are not that bad..... Dead Bang is a fairly run of the mill cop against bad guys type thing but what takes it out of the run of the mill is the direction from Frankenheimer & the star turn from Johnson. Johnson gives a great performance as the stressed cop,we can see the frustration in Beck's life either doing his job or trying to see his kids,his acting is done very well & not over the top..in particular the xmas morning bust Beck makes..the start of the scene we see the alcoholic sweats to later on being sick all over the suspect. The supporting cast however do not raise their game to give the support Johnson needs with William Forsythe in particular giving a completely wooden performance which is surprizing as he has been so much better.

The action scenes are handled very well indeed...The gunfights(are they're are a few) are not to Hollywood for my liking.

On the whole a very enjoyable movie & it shows that Don Johnson should have been a movie star.

This crime drama was barely released by the studio, so not many got to see it. It IS, however, a cut or two above your usual routine action film, with an absorbing (and topical) story, good acting and solid direction by veteran director John Frankenheimer. Not a classic, but there are many WORSE films out there. If you're only used to seeing him on "Miami Vice" as the ultra-cool Sonny Crockett, Johnson may surprise you here with a his performance....he's gritty, funny, flawed and very real (both the character and story here are fact-based). The scene where he vomits on a suspect after a blocks-long foot chase (he's hung over from a previous night's alcohol binge) is a classic....gross, but hilarious.

There's a specific brand of cop in film and on TV that apparently appeals to audiences. Typically, he's alienated from his family because he's too dedicated to his job and consumes too much of his time doing it and not enough with them. Or debasing brutality has taken too big a chunk out of his consciousness for him to frequent the society of women and children. Generally, he eats three meals of pizza or Chinese and drinks like a fish. The company he keeps does nothing for his lexicon. And the first thing everybody tells him is that he looks terrible. In Dead Bang, Don Johnson plays this classic brand of cop, to a tee.

Has anyone ever made a movie about a good cop who is neurotically orderly? The one perhaps determining stroke contributed by Dead Bang is a scene in which the inebriated investigator heaves onto a suspect. His name is Beck and on Christmas Eve he's designated to probe the murder of another LA cop. He produces the name of a freshly paroled offender apparently affiliated with a disheveled band of white supremacists.

There are a few rows and gunfights, and a Fed overplayed by William Forsythe imposes himself. Also, due to his wreckless ways, which appear somewhat restrained relative to that of most movie cops, Beck is ordered by the chief to obtain permission from a police shrink or be removed from the case. However since Michael Jeter's counselor resembles Woody Allen, Beck breaks up and the doctor grows annoyed and the opportunity of remaining on the case seems remote, that is till Beck has a very unclinical, clear-cut and inhospitable talk with the slightly built fellow.

Near the beginning, there's an unwanted detour in which Beck beds Penelope Ann Miller who, unbeknownst to him, was the wife of the murdered cop. But when he faces her with the information, that's all and she never appears again. From then on out it's all boys, and there is some inexplicably evocative dialogue in which Beck and his contemporaries talk about "going through doors" together. Beck says there's only one thing that counts: Is there anyone who'd be afraid to go through a door with him? And later, his police chief replies, "I want you to know that I'd go through a door with you anytime." Johnson's eyes look aloof, but he's got some presence here, doing the work and really deriving something appealing out of the formula. As the burdensome G-man, Forsythe is the essence of trivial-mindedness. At one point, he looks at a shivering Beck with gravitas and says, "You didn't bring a cold-weather coat? What's wrong with you?" Also, Bob Balaban, as a whipped parole officer, and Tim Reid, as a local police chief, give their roles some punch.

However, what the audience sees, actually, are a couple of white-supremacist psychopaths with a fixation on racial purity and homemade apple tarts. Their main advocates are a handful of dim-witted Hell's Angels sorts who, when they need funds, raid the Mexican bar right next door, kill everyone in it and then are astonished when the authorities appear. John Frankenheimer's control is tight enough but quite mechanical: He sustains the action but doesn't furnish much character. Then again, Robert Foster's script is speckled with crumbs of peculiarity, practically all of them minor. Frankenheimer, the director of three of the most sharply honed and deeply affecting conspiracy movies ever made, is also responsible for some of the more negligible.