Review of Cop Car (2015) by Word P — 17 Aug 2015

After hearing that Sony and Marvel had found their new director for the new Spiderman movie, I was surprised when they said it was Jon Watts, especially seeing how short a resume he has.

I went into this film with very high expectations with the news of that coming out before I saw it and it also didn't hurt that Kevin Bacon was attached to the project.

One thing I can say is what makes Jon Watts a good director for Spiderman is that he was amazing at capturing the essence of the kids, which is good seeing how their doing the whole John Hughes high school theme.

I found it even more impressive that he got great performances out of two unknown leads and allowed them to possess the wide eyed innocence which created some hilarious scenes out of what most would consider mundane situations.

Kevin Bacon was awesome as he usually is. Portraying the sheriff chasing down the kids who stole his car was a great mix of hilarity from running back and forth, suspenseful when he gets to certain situations, and sincerity when it called for him to be vulnerable.

The script has a decent flow to it. Moving the story along with enough twist to keep the audience engaged, which was a relief because I was skeptical going in to seeing the movie thinking the whole thing was just going to be Kevin Bacon chasing two kids around Bennie Hill style for two hours, and thank god it wasn't.

I wish Watts could get another film under his belt before he jumps into Spiderman mostly for three reasons.

One, with him only doing two films prior and how much Sony and Marvel have riding on this film, I have a feeling the studio will give Watts the Josh Trank treatment.

Two, Watts needs to find out what kind of directing style he plans to stick with because his last two movies are like night and day and doesn't really leave a lasting impression.

Three, I would like to see Watts shoot a movie he did not write. Clown was kind of sub-par in terms of script and cinematography, and as good as Cop Car was there is still is a lot of plot holes and the third act gets really convoluted and just ends with no rhyme or reason which basically was the same problems Marc Webb had with Amazing Spider-man 2.

The fact that both studio's are choosing to go with Jon Watts despite the short and unimpressive resume, same with the writers, makes me believe that someone lost a bet or Watts must be fucking or related to someone important at Marvel or Sony because nothing about this director says "John Hughes", "Spiderman", or even Major Box Office draw because his two movies to his credit are straight to VOD worthy at best.

If you get a chance to check it out, you definitely should. Watts' best movie hands down. Not really theater worthy bit hit up Vod and redbox and check out an above average Indy flick.