Pointless theme-ride through the LA gutter, despite good acting and production values.

Rating: 5/10 (2 May 2004)

Police and thieves are such a staple of TV that you have to be looking at making something special to make one stand out as a feature film.
Here the producers try and make things bigger, bolder and more extreme but, sadly, this only makes the production more hysterical and far-fetched. No cop in the history of the force is quite as down-and-dirty as the one played here by Denzil Washington. Indeed he is probably as out-there as any cop in the history of cinema cops!
Excess and success have often been mistaken for one another in the Oscar world and here Denzil took the main prize with this good, but hardly great, performance. The guy can grin and talk in double time (this guy knows about speech rhythm and stress - which is rare for an American actor), but this must have been a poor year. Nathan Hawke is actually just as good as the rookie that may - or may not - be corrupted.
Here we are in "blacktown after-dark" (for those that have seen Kentucky Fried Movie!) and you can be sure that the minute they step out of the car there will be gunshots, a chase and a death. Yes it is quite lively and the street hoods do look the real deal, but so what, they probably are the real deal!
I feel for Hawke, the cop he is playing is a moron so he can only react not act. Hope he gets his own star gig soon - he looks ready.
There are plenty of other movies that leave a horrible aftertaste - Boyz in the Hood, Menace 2 Society, Taxi Driver, to name but three - but there films have some social comment to make. This doesn't. This says: It is all rotten, it is all without hope. Bad places have bad cops so they are part of the problem not part of the solution. There is no redeeming qualities here. It is just a pointless theme ride through the LA gutter. Sadly it won't be the last.