Best movie of this year hands down!

Awesome Movie

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

(Credit IMDb) When a cop's crooked past comes back to get him, can he do the right thing, or will he succumb to the threats of his dangerous connections? Not only was this movie confusing, but boring. I wasn't really sure what Dorff's character was all about. Dorff can be a great actor when he has the right material to work with, but making crappy STD movies is not the way to go. I can't believe the cast for this kind of crap. James Woods must have been looking for a paycheck, same with David Boreanz. Dorff fans can do much better. Ironically enough, this is a similar film to another STD movie of Dorff's that is equally as terrible called, Tomorrow You're Gone2/10

It's better than "Brake", and certainly more entertaining than "Somewhere".I rented "Pawn" and "Officer Down" last night for a b-cop-double-feature. Pawn was alright, but Officer Down gets the nod out of the two for its' better acting across the board.It marginally works as a character study.The pacing is alright and the writing isn't half-bad.The film needed a bit more interaction and back-story to the marriage/wife - which might have added some genuine drama. Really, that was the problem with both of these movies.While this is a "b" movie, and I am rating it a 6(56/100), I'm not going to be adding to my "jeremy's B Movie marathon list". I don't know that I can give this my recommendation, but there are certainly worse options in the redbox.The film has just enough surprises, and that 'better than usual' performance from the lead that makes this slightly better than average, and certainly better than most of the b-straight-to-DVD fair that's out there.

This is one of those dirty gritty cop thrillers where the line between good and bad simply does not exist. Personally I prefer these types of movies to the standard police thriller where the police are clearly on the good guys side and the suspect is clearly one of the bad guys. While some of them with a good dose of action, or a good dose of comedy, are good, it is the ones, like this one, where the black and white view of society pretty much morphs into an ugly shade of grey.The movie is set in Bridgeport Conneticuit, which I liked because of the shift away from the standard New York, Los Angeles, Chicago (or random small town) setting of most American movies. It is always good to actually move away from these standard settings to realise that all of the action simply does not happen in one of these three cities. It is also about a police officer who has managed to clean himself up after what appeared to be a random shooting (though we find out more about it afterwards) and move onto the straight and narrow. Also, right at the beginning of the film, we are also introduced to the major theme, and that is perception as opposed to reality.The idea is to project a perception of the police force so that people can have confidence in the police, and as such when it turns out that a police officer has gone bad, the who mess is swept under the carpet. However, if it is possible to hang one of them out to dry, then it can be done as well. Make an example of one of them so that all the others fall in line. This begins with an incident where our main character has finally caught up with a rapist who, after being arrested, turns out to be a cop. However, in the interview room, we also notice that on one hand, we have the lawyer trying to plead mental incapacity, and on the other hand the captain wanting to keep the whole sordid mess hush hush.The main character is portrayed very much as a loner. He goes about his own business, and investigates his own personal cases. In fact, Stephen Dorf, who is the lead actor, does a brilliant job at this. This is not a partner movie where the cops partner up and buddy buddy all the way through the film. No, there is too many skeleton's in the closet for that to happen. True, he has a good family life, but even then that was on the rocks for a while as well.In most cases, it is all about perception verse reality. It is one of those films where as it progresses, more and more becomes revealed. The perception, the illusionary veil, is slowly pierced to bring about the reality of what is going on. Even then, by the end of the film, when all is said and done, the attempt at keeping the veil intact is maintained. However, it is interesting, and whether this is based on fact or not, the film indicates that the person who was the main person responsible for the veil, while doing time, does not do as much time as the one who successfully ripped the veil to shreds (but there is a reason for that, which I won't go into).

For the first half of the film I was hopeful a point would be revealed to all the confusing scenes that never seemed to add anything to a weak story. For example, in one scene Det. Callahan (Steven Dorff) is told by his daughter that she wants to ask him about something that is troubling her. However, instead of actually listening to what she has to say he cuts her off with insistent question after insistent question until she runs off in frustration! OK, so the scene sort of had a point in that it showed the Callahan saw only what he wanted to see, or that his relationship with his daughter was being interfered with by his work, but in the end we never find out what the daughter was trying to ask. I mean it seemed like it was something important being that this daughter who barely said a thing to her father unless it was dismissive of his concern for her, was all of a sudden wanting to ask him something really important and not go to her mother! But we are just left hanging. That's just one small example of how little sense the film made, but the real nonsensical scene was at the end. The captain offers Callahan a pre-written statement that will absolve him of all blame and allow him to carry on with his life in possession of a new moral code forged in the mistakes of the past. Instead of signing the statement though Callahan owns up to the truth of the situation and goes to prison! That just makes no sense! What was achieved by telling the truth?! It wasn't like signing the statement meant he couldn't change his ways. And who in their right mind would knowingly allow themselves to be sentenced to prison? Especially a cop? He may as well have just shot himself in the head and been done with it? Basically none of it made sense and left me feeling rather unsatisfied - kinda like I had just wasted 100 minutes of my life because that's exactly what I had done!