Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Dreadfully Boring

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Stephen Dorff has always had a dangerous, flint spark vibe to his work, and he employs it fully here in Officer Down, playing Detective David Callahan, a corrupt, volatile cop with a drug problem, and past affiliations with the wrong kind of people. This film is what many would classify as a b movie, but I for one found it a careful, well casted and acted, loving throwback to the gritty cop flicks of the 70's, something in the vein of Joe Carnahan's Narc, or even Training Day. It sets up for an out and out action headbanger, but surprised me by calming down, and subverting itself, becoming a well structured, exciting, character based crime story that had me paying attention the entire time. Callahan has a past of slumming it in shady, mob run clubs, up to his ears in coke and whores. When his crooked past comes back to haunt him in the form of clues to a forgotten cold case that conveniently seem to fall into his lap, he's spurred to dig up old, painful memories to get to the truth of what's been going on. For an out of left field indie, it has a surprisingly intricate plot that I really didn't expect, and the mid story twists are invigorating, and reminded me why I love this sub genre. The eclectic cast alone is enough to warrant interest, with many an actor cast far against type to excellent result. James Woods pisses everyone off as spitfire police captain Verona, David Boreanaz and Stephen Lang kick in great work as Callahan's suspicious colleagues. Dominic Purcell nicely underplays a strip club owning prick with silent, mirthful evil, Annalyne McCord is great as A stripper in mortal danger, Walton Goggins is awesome as Detective Logue, aka The Angel, who figures mysteriously in the plot, and there's nice work from Soulja Boy, Tommy Flanagan, Oleg Taktarov, and Johnny Messner in a cameo as a growling ex cop psycho. All the elements are brought together nicely to give us a bare bones, tough ass dose of character driven pulp that really enjoyable.

I have always liked Stephen Dorff, but most of his roles have been strong supporting ones. It is pleasant to notify that last years have seen him becoming a leading actor where he virtually fills out a movie (apart from Officer Down, in Brake last year - recommended as well). He can be both a convincing tough cop and a caring family man, a reliable person and a controversial one. As for Officer Down, he (as Detective David Callahan) as well as James Woods (as Captain Verona) provide the biggest value to the movie (the other actors seem to derive from Seagal-Lundgren type of movies). Woods is also an actor who makes movies more interesting to follow.The plot is slightly cloddish, flashbacks and odd alterations are confusing and some scenes are questionable, especially Logue-related ones. The ending could have been more elaborated, too. Nevertheless, the movie is recommended for killing time and a bit longer than 1,5 hours passes without yawns and/or blah feelings.

A fabulous combo of gritty cop drama and action, with just the right amount of 'who dunnit' (or rather, 'who is it?') thrown in. There is a lot of ambiguity amongst the characters and their intentions, heightened by the use of flashback/dream sequences... which could annoy the less attentive but completely captivate problem-solving film viewers. It made it all the more enjoyable for me - putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.Superb acting and an original story never short of a twist. I knew little about this film before going in, and I'm thankful as I was fully immersed throughout all the confusion and plot arcs. I think the title was the only thing that didn't do it justice - it is more than just another police-action-drama story.

As I mentioned in the summary, this movie can be very confusing. One thing that makes it very confusing is the flashback sequences that you don't realize are flashbacks. Using flashbacks to flesh out the back stories for characters is certainly nothing new, most directors will change the character in some way,(glasses, different hairstyle, etc ...)if the character looks the same then they may use an effect so the scene looks different, letting the viewer know that this is a flashback, failing those 2 methods, some directors will put a specific piece of music to flashbacks in OD however the main character looks exactly the same, unshaven, wrinkled clothes, he is without a doubt the least hygienic movie detective I have ever seen. I could see why he would have looked that way when he was drinking on the job, hanging out in a strip club, sleeping with strippers but at the start of the movie he is supposed to have been clean for 2 1/2 years. I mean c'mon clean yourself up.Once you get by the very confusing time line and the problem with flashbacks this is not a horrible movie. The acting in fact was really quite good. I had never heard of Stephen Dorff but he did well as the protagonist, James Woods is always great, especially at being the bad guy, in fact he seems like he's the bad guy even when he plays a good guy.I gave this movie a 6 because I thought it was worth the 90 minutes that it runs. As you would expect it has to move pretty fast to get the plot fleshed out, this probably accounts for some of confusing shifts and characters that are involved but you have no idea who they are. I didn't feel like I wanted my 90 minutes back, but it is not a movie I will see again.