Review of Officer Down (2013) by Navq — 22 Jan 2013

Storyline: An alcoholic cop Detective Callahan (no, not that one) has trouble sleeping and suffers from flashbacks (a lot of flashbacks) because of a near fatal shooting he was involved with. He's having trouble with his wife and daughter, also he has a thing about rapists. A man gives him a diary and after reading the sad tale told within he starts to look for bad guys.

Acting: This has an amazing cast, but no one is trying hard in this film which might have helped. Anyhoo Stephen Dorff does an able job and is pretty convincing as the struggling detective as has a go at doing the 'cop with issues' gig. James Woods (why doesn't he have an Oscar??) pops in and out with his usual presence but I think he's there to add weight and balance out the effect of having a bad script. Stephen Lang (Avatar) and the very talented AnnaLynne McCord (Excision)perhaps gave the best performances. Tommy Flanagan (he's from my home town) has a very small role and I try to see a film if he's in it.

Direction: Brian A Miller looks like he was handed a week script, a small budget and while the cast are all very good actors they are clearly miscast so it was never really going to be great in his hands.

Production: I really hated the editing I mean, I'm not an expert but It's bad when I can actually tell because it messed up the pacing badly. It only cost $12 million and that fact gives it kudos because the director overcame and still knocked out an acceptable movie Conclusion: A cop thriller that's trying so hard to be a lot better than it is but I liked it. It felt a bit diluted in the script department but hey, it was cheap.