One of the downsides of not going to the movies as often as I used to is that a lot of smaller movies, many times worth a trip to the multiplex, somehow miss my notice until they come out if at all. I mean, I don’t think I’d even heard of Copshop before it came out. I might have even passed it by, but I do follow a couple movie critic channels on YouTube, and someone whose opinions often are close to mine actually recommended this one. So, yeah, I decided to emerge from my self-imposed bubble to head off to the local mall to see it a week after it came out. There were maybe five other people in the screening room with me.
Besides, Gerard Butler got top billing, and while he’s been in a lot of dumb movies, he usually gives a good performance regardless of the level of the material. I should get a kick out of it for him alone.
For reasons not immediately explained, con man and self-proclaimed “fixer” Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo) decides the best place for himself after something big happened was to get himself arrested. He tossed into the holding room at the police station for a small police force for an equally small town in the middle of the Nevada desert. Small problem for Teddy: Bob Viddick (Butler), a hired killer for the mafia with a contract on Teddy, saw Teddy’s arrest and decides to do the same thing by faking a DUI. Of course, this is much bigger than just one con man doing something to the Nevada mafia, and there are other, much more dangerous forces out there looking to get to Teddy too, and these other guys are probably a lot less discriminating than Bob ever could be. It will be up to young rookie Valerie Young (Alexis Louder) to decide whether she will need to trust either Teddy or Bob, if anyone.
Director Joe Carnahan, who co-wrote the script, put together a movie that reminded me a great deal of Bad Times at the El Royale. It’s not quite as good as that movie, but it is definitely in a similar vibe to it. I felt a palatable tension the entire first half. True, it may just be my personal nerves being out at the mall after a lot of self-quarantine, but I did know that Butler’s Bob was not going to be the only hitman, so I was sitting there nervously waiting for the second guy to show up. Heck, the trailer promised the second guy. And when he does show up, let’s just say the wait is worth it.
That second hitman is played by Toby Huss, and quite frankly, he more or less steals the movie. No one gives a bad performance, but Huss seems to be genuinely enjoying himself with all of his downright goofy dialogue. It fits the character he’s playing, particularly since Huss’s Anthony Lamb is supposed to be a different sort of character. He’s the closest the movie comes to a comic relief character, but it’s a very dark sort of comedy.
Now, when I was in college, the movies I tended to love best were the ones with smart and clever scripts. Good dialogue is still something I keep an ear out for, and many of my favorite movies from both that time and today are movies with a lot of great talking scenes. Copshop has that too. There’s a crackle to the dialogue here, and all of the three leads–Butler, Grillo, and especially newcomer Louder–acquit themselves very well, creating the sort of larger than life characters and criminals a movie like this needs. I had a lot of fun with this one, and I’d recommend it for anyone looking for a nice, tight thriller with a lot of shifty characters who may or may not be worthy of an idealistic cop’s trust.
Grade: B+
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