2 Flics à Downtown

My review was written in January 1990 after watching the movie at a Chelsea theater in Manhattan.

"Downtown" is a routine buddy cops film, with no chance to give 20th Century Fox a hit in the genre to parallel its loner cop annuity, "Die Hard".

Scripter Nat Mauldin's by-the-numbers premise has white bread young cop Anthony Edwards become the fish out of water transferred from the comfy suburbs to Philadelphia's inner-city Diamond Street district. He's had a run-in trying to arrest powerful businessman David Clennon for speeding. It's telegraphed tha Clennon will be back as the main plot cog.

Emphasizing his flair for slapstick (with oodles of blood and bruises that the Three Stooges never incurred), Edwards displays myriad forms of incompetence, instantly incurring the wrath of his new boss (Art Evans). He attaches himself, unwanted, to young but seasoned black detective Forest Whitakr and tries to solve the murder of his former partner from the 'burgs, perpetrated near the Diamond Street police station. A scam involving stolen Mercedes autos and corrupt police provides some interest along the way.

Chemistry between the two leads occasionally works, but helmer Richard Benjamin fails to maintain a consistent tone. Atop the slapstick and black humor there is some unnecessary ultra-violence and both mawkish and dramatic scenes that clash with the intended good-timey feel. Best attempt at injecting depth beyond the surface gags is Whitaker's lengthy monolog recalling the death of his first partner, delivered movingly by the "Bird" star.

Supporting turns by Penelope Ann Miller and Kimberly Scott as the leads' wives are well-played, and ic's most memorable role is Evans' showy effort as the foul-mouthed, explosive top cop downtown. Villains Clennon and Joe Pantoliano seem miscast and he thesps play it tongue-in-cheek and way too light.

Pic's biggest bone comes when Whitake is written out of the film before the last reel. It's designed as a plot twist, but comes off as pointless -one infe4rs while watching that the thesp had to run off and fulfill another film assignment. He pops back in for a coda scene but it's too late since he's missing at the de rigeur shootout with the heavies.

Tech credits are impressive, notably Terry Leonard's frequent and scary car chases and stunts. War zone atmosphere of the Philly setting is well conveyed, though the film was shot primarily in L. A.

Police Officer Alex Kearney is a keen by the book cop who's happy with his beat in a nice part of Philadelphia. Unfortunately his adherence to the rules lands him in trouble with his chiefs after he tries to arrest an important businessman who has long standing police connections. When his side of the story is not believed, he is given the choice of suspension or a transfer to downtown. Choosing the transfer, Kearney isn't quite prepared for just how dangerous and crime filled downtown actually is. Worse still, his new tough no nonsense partner positively hates him!

It's churlish to suggest that Downtown is merely a cash in of the buddy buddy inter racial cop movies, that, as we know, were made viable entertainment fare by the likes of Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop. Starring Forest Whitaker (Dennis Curren) and Anthony Edwards (Alex Kearney), Downtown is as much about a fish out of water scenario than it is polar opposite cops working together. With both things dovetailing together to create an engaging actioner that's worth the time of those who are stuck for something light to watch.

Suffering a touch in the last finale due to an inevitable mawkish character strand, some minor irks stop this from reaching greater heights, chiefly that David Clennon's barely grumpy villain is just not strong enough for some dramatic heft. However, there's some genuinely funny scenes between Edwards and Whitaker, the action set-pieces are well staged and thus Downtown gets most of the genre's requisites right. Nice support comes from Joe Pantoliano as a bizarre looking hit-man and Penelope Ann Miller as Kearney's fraught girlfriend, Lori Mitchell. 6.5/10

"Downtown" is a box office crash & burn from 1990. Basically it is yet another unsuccessful attempt to follow-up on the success of "Beverly Hills Cop" (without the benefit of Eddie Murphy). These inter-racial, buddy picture, cop movie, comedy-action features simply don't work without a talented comic and Anthony Edwards of "Revenge of the Nerds" fame is only mildly funny. Add to this a more serious group of themes than Murphy had to deal with and the incongruity of mixing these conflicting genres makes the whole a lot less than the sum of its parts.

Yet "Downtown" is more entertaining than its "bomb at the box office" reputation would lead you to believe. The production design, filming, and editing are first class. Although the action scenes are unconvincing, this is due more to lamely inserted comedy elements than cheap staging.

Much is genuinely embarrassing such as when a PCP abuser holds a little girl hostage, with a gun to her head, and the subtext lamely plays the scene for laughs. What genius thought that scene would work? And they wonder why these things lose money? In this exercise in schizoid film-making, Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker are the standard odd couple partnering up to solve the murder of Edwards' former partner. Nerd boy Alex (Edwards) in his worst scenes listens to Beach Boys music and in his best scenes is paired with his girlfriend (Penelope Ann Miller).

Alex is a suburban patrolman who has been banished to the worst downtown Philly division because of a confrontation with a slimy bigwig (unconvincingly overplayed by David Clennon). Dennis (Whitaker) is a detective with a lot of baggage that makes it difficult for him to warm up to Alex.

But Alex and Dennis eventually bond (big surprise) and Whitaker turns in a pretty good performance (much too good for this material). Whitaker and Miller assist the marginally talented but generally likable Edwards enough that it is possible for the average viewer to suspend disbelief most of the time and actually get into the story. Just be prepared for a lot of extremely lame moments that would have been more entertaining had the editor relegated them to his deleted scenes bin.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Downtown wouldn't have been a personal choice but i was lent it with some other movies so I watched it. I understood that Forest Whitaker was in downtown (actor of recent film The Last King Of Scotland) The film turned out to be quite reasonable, co-star Anthony Edwards was actually quite funny at times making the film that little bit better, and not forgetting the soundtracks that make a good film.

The film included shooting scenes, car chase scenes, and a bit of comedy splashed in for good measure.Forest Whitaker played a fairly good part and is a decent actor, the problem with films these day is that 90% of them are swarming with new/fresh from drama school teens, we need to hang on to our good actors.

overall, a good cop flick worth the 90 min. - 7/10

This is a good movie, it looks and sounds good, has good action and acting, good characters and story... it's a good movie. But, it's not a standout movie. It's too much like the movies that paved the way towards this being made. It's Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon, and 48hrs. It's a buddy cop, fish outta water, and culture clash. It has the loud police chief, the reluctant partner, and the class divide. It's an action, thriller, and comedy. Sometimes serious, sometimes not. The problem is it doesn't reach anywhere near the heights of any of its predecessors, and it actually struggles to pull everything together. The balance of comedy and thriller is just off, it's goofy one moment and throat-slashing serious the next. Edwards and Whitaker are both good actors, but neither one is funny enough to carry the humor or convincing enough when the guns come out. It's not a classic but, it's a good movie.