Officer Down (2013)

Stephen Dorff has always had a dangerous, flint spark vibe to his work, and he employs it fully here in Officer Down, playing Detective David Callahan, a corrupt, volatile cop with a drug problem, and past affiliations with the wrong kind of people. This film is what many would classify as a b movie, but I for one found it a careful, well casted and acted, loving throwback to the gritty cop flicks of the 70's, something in the vein of Joe Carnahan's Narc, or even Training Day. It sets up for an out and out action headbanger, but surprised me by calming down, and subverting itself, becoming a well structured, exciting, character based crime story that had me paying attention the entire time. Callahan has a past of slumming it in shady, mob run clubs, up to his ears in coke and whores. When his crooked past comes back to haunt him in the form of clues to a forgotten cold case that conveniently seem to fall into his lap, he's spurred to dig up old, painful memories to get to the truth of what's been going on. For an out of left field indie, it has a surprisingly intricate plot that I really didn't expect, and the mid story twists are invigorating, and reminded me why I love this sub genre. The eclectic cast alone is enough to warrant interest, with many an actor cast far against type to excellent result. James Woods pisses everyone off as spitfire police captain Verona, David Boreanaz and Stephen Lang kick in great work as Callahan's suspicious colleagues. Dominic Purcell nicely underplays a strip club owning prick with silent, mirthful evil, Annalyne McCord is great as A stripper in mortal danger, Walton Goggins is awesome as Detective Logue, aka The Angel, who figures mysteriously in the plot, and there's nice work from Soulja Boy, Tommy Flanagan, Oleg Taktarov, and Johnny Messner in a cameo as a growling ex cop psycho. All the elements are brought together nicely to give us a bare bones, tough ass dose of character driven pulp that really enjoyable.

Officer Down needs to be watched at least twice to really comprehend what is happening. Really, a freshman college level understanding of literature to begin with is helpful in order to discuss it intelligently. Western Biblical themes such as redemption, deliverance, angels, devils, and Christ figures abound. Just about everything in it ties together or has a parallel that makes important information and concepts evident or at least available depending how deeply you want to think about it.Viewers literally should take notes as the movie is playing because all the words of the dialog seem carefully selected. An interesting irony among the symbolism is that the central driving force of a lot of what happens is the reading of a book. Actually, the thing I would change is the name of the movie which should have been called The Book because that is what it is really about.Acting and photography was excellent. Directing kept a good flow. But, I guess the other thing I would change is the music. They passed up some great potential in what could have been a powerful and memorable soundtrack if they used the right songs. Otherwise Officer Down is a refreshing, profound variation in the Dirty Harry genre.

As I mentioned in the summary, this movie can be very confusing. One thing that makes it very confusing is the flashback sequences that you don't realize are flashbacks. Using flashbacks to flesh out the back stories for characters is certainly nothing new, most directors will change the character in some way,(glasses, different hairstyle, etc ...)if the character looks the same then they may use an effect so the scene looks different, letting the viewer know that this is a flashback, failing those 2 methods, some directors will put a specific piece of music to flashbacks in OD however the main character looks exactly the same, unshaven, wrinkled clothes, he is without a doubt the least hygienic movie detective I have ever seen. I could see why he would have looked that way when he was drinking on the job, hanging out in a strip club, sleeping with strippers but at the start of the movie he is supposed to have been clean for 2 1/2 years. I mean c'mon clean yourself up.Once you get by the very confusing time line and the problem with flashbacks this is not a horrible movie. The acting in fact was really quite good. I had never heard of Stephen Dorff but he did well as the protagonist, James Woods is always great, especially at being the bad guy, in fact he seems like he's the bad guy even when he plays a good guy.I gave this movie a 6 because I thought it was worth the 90 minutes that it runs. As you would expect it has to move pretty fast to get the plot fleshed out, this probably accounts for some of confusing shifts and characters that are involved but you have no idea who they are. I didn't feel like I wanted my 90 minutes back, but it is not a movie I will see again.

When I started watching this film I was trying to figure out where it was going for the first hour. And with a film that approximately 1hr37mins that's pushing my limits on clarity (or as the politicians call it, transparency). On the other hand what fun would it be it we could figure out what was going to happen next (but I do like to know what's happening now).All the actors do a good job. James Woods is always great and he maintains his standing in this film. Dorff is believable as the alcohol/drug abusing detective, although I don't know if many police departments would allow his attire, demeanor and foul odor to continue for very long. I like Walton Goggins in this although I don't think there was enough of him. That broad toothy smile of his is a trademark but we did not see any of that in this flick.Even after the film discloses part of the overall plot and what you think is the missing piece there is still a finish that surprises. Otherwise, this would be a humdrum movie.One concept that was used extensively were flashbacks, especially at the beginning, that left me confused about what the actual storyline was or which storyline I was suppose to follow. But I got past it and enjoyed the movie.This film is worth a watch.