Review of Crown Vic (2019) by Kenr — 07 Nov 2021

Crown Vic (Protect and Serve) ’19 – Curious but Rough Ride If you’re looking for a movie to convince you not to be an American policeman this is it. Unrelentingly downbeat all the way, this cynical ultra vicious movie continually goes for the worst in humanity - from a manic rogue cop (easily the worst possible example) to the drug destroyed wife of an ex-cop, to a little girl being held from her family for untold purposes, and rampaging cop killers, shooting up any that come their way, etc, etc, (all in a nights work) While it may give us a look into the dregs of society – it wallows in its negativity, failing to offer its audience any glimmer of hope (no wonder they stayed away).

Performances are all good and the contrast between the young rookie and grizzled vet works most of the time but with an unrelenting barrage of hopelessness - wrapped up in a script by writer/director (Joel Souza) who, unfortunately, seems incapable of stringing sentences together without every other word being a vulgarity. While so-called ‘trendy’ Hollywood types might speak like this it also assures it becomes tiresome for many others.

At least it has a pounding, moody soundtrack. In the seventies, films like ‘The New Centurions’ served this theme with some reasonable justice, and even though times have certainly changed, can it truly be as blatantly radical as we are being bludgeoned with here.