Narc
A film that does not hold up to the change in cultural mores. Not that we've done away with stories that at least somewhat lionize rogue police officers, those who don't abide those feckless bureaucrats and their rules that keep cops from doing their jobs. And even if the story allows for the cop to be an antihero in a way, it generally finds a way to make them right in the end. It's like 24's embrace of torture, the ends justify the means in popular macho conservative cinema/television. This film opens on a reckless cop leaving collateral damage in his wake. His retirement (at a young age) is ended when he's called to look into the death of another cop and right back into the fray. I kind of want to go Roger Ebert on this film and show it scene at a time, only instead of analyzing it, just ask both police officers and ordinary Americans whether what they just saw seems acceptable. I fear how many would say yes. How many might find a redemption in the end, instead of leave ready to defend the police, at best, and somewhat celebrating the film's cop deaths, at worst.
I just read Ebert's review and he liked it, ugh. He talks about a virtuoso handheld sequence, which stood out to me...as awful. Just a motion-inducing shaky ride that makes all the action indecipherable.