Review of One Good Cop (1991) by Kyle E — 28 Jul 2010

There's no doubt in my mind Michael Keaton's sophisitcation that he brings to his characters, makes any movie he does appealing. Heck, even Jack Frost had an appeal to it, but the movie of course sucked. And so does this one.

Ok, maybe I'm being a little unfair, I mean characters like this are written for someone like Michael Keaton, and you can easily see why this role was something he felt he could take on without any trouble. Afterall, just two years before this film came out, Michael Keaton was Batman! And when this film was released, he was filiming Batman Returns. It's safe to say Michael Keaton was one of the biggest stars in the world at the release of this movie.

The premise is simple. Keaton plays Artie Lewis, a respected cop, who loves his wife, and is best friends with his partner, played by another talented actor, Anthony LaPaglia, best known for his starring role on the hit TV series, Without a Trace. His partner is killed in a hostage crisis, and his world gets turned upside down.

He ends up taking care of his partner's three young girls, as he was a single parent, and now he must go to great lenghts to protect everyone he loves in his life, lenghts to the point where it crosses a moral boundry in his police work.

I normally like movies like this, but it plays itself off more like a lazy Charles Bronson film, that doesen't make the effort at all to be any fun. And this movie really cops out in a cliche Hollywood manner, and for something with such great potential, I can't understand for the life of me as to why, anyone thought this was a good idea.

As I said Keaton is good here, he's very seldom ever bad, even in a bad film. Rene Russo, normally reliable and good in her films, is written thanklessly as Artie's wife Rita, and the girls are also written lazily, with maybe the minor acception of Grace Johnson, who was quite good in the tearjerker "Beaches" a few years before this.

It's hard to imagine this film ever even being touted to be a success, it seemed as if the world was banking on Michael Keaton to be a huge box office monster with him being a well like actor among critics and loyal fans for years, and the huge success of Batman. Now yes, I said too, Keaton was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, but sadly it wasn't because of his acting abilites, it was because of the Batman name being attatched to him. The problem here, is that the makers of this film were going for quantity, not quality, and they ended up with neither. The film bombed in the box office, and most critics did not like it. Neither did I.