Keeps us interested, but the ending is silly

Rating: 6/10 (5 October 2019)

Washington is phenomenal as corrupt cop Alonzo Harris. For the first half of the film, he keeps us wondering if he's a bad guy or a good guy, in spite of his unorthodox methods. He's actually seems like both. Sometimes he's charming; other times, he's outright despicable. It take a skillful actor to pull off a role like this.
Ethan Hawke, as Jake Hoyt, Harris' white rookie partner on his first day as a narcotics cop, is convincing as he wrestles with his concepts of right and wrong--enforcing the law or stooping to the level of the criminals he's dealing with. Alonzo puts him through his paces, big time.
The second half of the film goes into dissipation. As Alonzo's actions become increasingly over the top and corrupt, Hoyt, finds himself descending into is own kind of vigilantism. In the ending of the film, his decision to "do the right thing" is not only misguided, but it causes Alonzo's demise. Ironic.
All through the film, I kept wondering how these two cowboys got away with all this stuff without any other cops or their superior officers knowing about it. Pretty hard to swallow. There's one brief scene with Alonzo having lunch with some high ranking police officials who are clearly indifferent to the law, but it's not enough to answer the question of why the two cops are completely unsupervised.
The film is fast moving and captivating and will keep you watching, but the final scenes descend into a typical violent Hollywood shootout that rivals Bonnie and Clyde. This movie could have had a better ending. It just "drops dead," if you'll pardon the expression. And it doesn't answer the moral question that it raised in the first place. If the middle had been cut shorter, there could have been a better resolution at the end. What became of Hoyt? What about the investigation of the shootout? We get nothing but death and final credits.
Still, it's worth a watch for two good performances, excellent camera work, and the questions it raises about police ethics (or lack of them).