‘Copshop’ is an action film stuck in lockup
“Copshop,” about a con artist trapped in jail with his would-be assassin, has the ingredients to be a diverting, B-picture romp, but belabored pacing, gigantic plot holes and paltry character development keep this action film stuck in lockup.
Almost the whole movie unfurls in the tiny burg of Gun Creek, Nevada, where a group of incompetent law-enforcement officers work in a huge, ultrasleek police station that seems incongruous with this Western-flavored crime story.
As it turns out, things are about to get bloody at Gun Creek. Mega-grifter Teddy (Frank Grillo) is on the run from hired killer Bob (Gerard Butler), and to escape Bob’s clutches, Teddy gets arrested on purpose, accosting rookie officer Valerie (Alexis Louder) and landing himself safely in jail. That is, until a new arrestee — Bob, of course — arrives in the cell next door, and Teddy needs a bailout ASAP.
This premise offers a modicum of promise as a pulpy, guilty pleasure, but director Joe Carnahan struggles to get his film in a groove. The setup scenes are not executed well, conveying too little information and relying on later flashbacks to tell us how this conflagration
started. Then, when the film should be moving faster, Carnahan saddles the main characters with boring, eye-rolling speeches that slow the film to a crawl.
Character confrontations that should be tense are somehow listless, and action sequences that should crackle are often ho-hum. There are too many moments that don’t advance the story, particularly when officers are sitting around and blabbering. (This film would have benefitted from a 25-minute cut in the editing room.)
Beyond the pacing issues, “Copshop” can’t settle on whether it wants to be an introspective action pic, or simply comic-book mayhem. It tries to be both, but manages to be neither. Sometimes a joke actually lands, but when the film attempts to go deeper, it only reinforces the fact that there’s no there there with any of these characters. As the body count mounts, we find ourselves not caring about any of these people, with the possible exception of Valerie, who is caught in the middle of the feuding Teddy and Bob.
The acting is not terrible here — not stellar, either — but the performers have so many actor-proof lines, and do so many silly things, that it’s difficult to take them or this film even semi-seriously. We’re supposed to be taking a fun thrill ride here, with a little existentialism to boot, but “Copshop” can’t escape its arrested development.
David Lewis is a Bay Area freelance writer.