Rating: 3.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2024 | 46/52 | Chuck Norris
Eddie Cusack walks alongside a trash truck, emptying bins. He looks around. The track truck driver, Dorato, looks around. A guy on the balcony looks around. Folks, we have a sting operation on our hands.
Doc picks up Spider, and the two head to the sting site. Cash changes hands and bundles of coke come out. But who are these bozos in the paint truck? The painters enter the building across from where the coke deal is going down. They assemble semi-automatic weapons and line the windows.
One of the cops notifies Cusack about the painters. Cusack catches on and rushes the building. But he’s too late. The painters open fire, taking out several drug dealers. Cusack and the gang give chase to the painters. Craigie, an older cop, accidentally kills an unarmed bystander. Panicked, he plants a gun on the kid. Cusack walks in on the scene, and Craigie forces his partner, Kopalas, to agree that the kid had a gun.
But Cusack knows Craigie, and this ain’t Craigie’s first mistake. Will Cusack join his fellow officers and uphold the code of silence? Can he handle the police politics and get to the bottom of the drug kingpin rivalry, especially when nobody squeals?
The film explores violence and the myriad ways we misuse it. The police err on the side of violence, putting innocent people in danger. Here they’re also investing in robot cops—more guns without brains. The Luna crime family, who sent the painters to the drug hit, has a leader who is trying to start a gang war without thinking through the consequences to those he loves. The Commachos, the ones dealing the Columbian Coke, know they don’t have the resources for this gang war but are driven by a thirst for revenge.
Chuck Norris has always been a weak actor who makes up for it with his stunts and fighting capability. This movie asks more of him than he can manage, but his stoicism is sufficient to get him through. Chuck Norris helps all the set pieces, some of which require some physical prowess that he can handle. No stunt double makes for more consistent tension.
The pacing is satisfying, giving us plenty of plot to experience without rushing through all the details. We spend time with characters from all facets of the story, so we watch the pinpoints slowly converge.
On paper, this looks like yet another cheeseball Chuck Norris flick. But this film has an emotional core that helps this movie stand out from your typical cop thriller fare.