Police action-thriller ‘Copshop’ comes out guns blazing
Scotsman Gerard Butler once again stands tall as an action-film star in “Copshop,” an off-the-hook police action-thriller with a serious “John Wick” vibe. Butler, who also produced, plays mystery man Bob Viddick, who gets himself locked up in a remote Nevada police precinct next to the cell holding Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo, TV’s “Billions”). Viddick describes himself as, not a psychopath, but a “professional.” Murretto is a criminal who got himself arrested by sucker punching Nevada police officer Valerie Young (Alexis Louder, “The Tomorrow War”). Young describes Murretto as “a day ahead of the devil.” Well, the devil’s day has come.
“Copshop,” which was scripted by newcomer Kurt McLeod and Joe Carnahan (“The A-Team,” “The Grey”), the film’s director, from a story by Mark Williams (TV’s “Ozark”), doesn’t strike you as very realistic or particularly original. Carnahan’s work has also been mostly overthe-top.
But as a guns-a-blazing, body-count, blood fest, it’s pretty amusing.
The Nevada attorney general, a total prop, was killed a few days earlier, signaling to us that something deeply corrupt is going on. Murretto keeps asking about the welfare of his “ex and kid,” and we don’t hold out much hope. Viddick tries to win Young’s confidence after she is wounded in a shootout with a genuine psychopath named Anthony Lamb (a standout Toby Huss), and she locks herself in the cell area with Viddick and Murretto. A policeman at the station named Huber (Ryan O’Nan) is dirty and up to no good. Lamb arrives at the station in a van, carrying flowers and balloons and begins mowing down everyone in sight. Viddick does all he can to get to Murretto, including teaching him some good, old-fashioned “pirate code.”
Carnahan brings back the revolving industrial fan, the biggest cliche of 1980s music videos, as a backdrop to much of the action, which is mostly limited to the remote desert station. But you don’t feel closed in because Carnahan otherwise makes good use of the space. In his early 50s, Butler still has the rugged good looks and physicality to play these roles and that King of Sparta screen presence and swagger. There is a shootout in the desert between good-guys-gone-bad that is very nicely staged.
Clinton Shorter’s retro score sets the Sam Peckinpah-esque mood, along with an homage to Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddy’s Dead” from Mayfield’s legendary, Grammy-nominated “Super Fly” score. The filmmakers also owe a debt to John Carpenter’s 1976 gem “Assault on Precinct 13.” Credit also goes to “Copshop” fight coordinator Cory DeMeyers (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”).
Another acting standout is female lead Louder, who was “Nigerian Woman #2” in “Black Panther” and turns her supporting role here into an audition for bigger and even better things.
(“Copshop” contains profanity and graphic violence.)