Hey, let's make a movie about a cocky average-sized white male cop who patrols the streets of South Central with a smirk on his face. Throw in the obligatory Hispanic stereotype as a partner and some cardboard gangsters. Oh wait a minute. Someone already did that in the 80's. It was called "Colors." Except that one had an old guy in place of the Mexican guy.
In this one, we are never told why the white guy is a cop, nor what is his philosophy of life. If he's so "alpha," does he have some kind of code to espouse? Who is his family and where is he from?
There is not a single cop depicted in this one who shares with the audience a belief in God, or any kind of old-school philosophy. Are we to believe that every uniformed cop is a foul-mouthed low-life? At least the old guy in Colors was interesting.
Are we to believe that all uniformed cops are alpha-dogs who relish a good fight and swear incessantly? There must be other types. They do show one female who is not macho, but she doesn't do well.
It would have been interesting to see an ex-athlete who sees the daily patrol as a contest requiring courage and endurance. Or perhaps a Christian who sees mankind as sinful but deserving a benefit of the doubt from time to time.
Do all gangsters really indulge in clichéd machismo and posturing? Actually a lot do probably. But some are just sociopaths who don't think about it one way or the other.
The brother/buddy concept was just too mushy for me and too clichéd. How many times have we seen this? There must be partners who don't feel that, but still have each other's back.
I could have done without the filming gimmick. Just show me their day without one of them supposedly taking footage for a class.
The violence was gritty and seemed real. If you like that sort of thing, you will like it here. Some reviewers said that there was no conflict here or point to it. I agree, but in some ways that made it a deeper commentary on the pointlessness of life. These guys live, they talk like low-lives, they shoot up some gangsters, and they wind up in deep trouble, as you may expect. Life's a bitch.
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