STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Following the killing of his partner outside a nightclub and a spate of recent cop killings, Detective Marty Kingston (Ray Liotta) takes it upon himself to find and bring down who is responsible. But he is taken aback at being saddled with cocky rookie cop Detective Jimmy Rogan (Kevin Chapman) whose dedication and commitment to tracking down the guilty party matches his...and sets in chain a motion of events that will expose a terrifying case of police corruption.
So we have Ray Liotta in a straight to DVD sequel to a film originally starring Keanu Reeves that went to theatres??? Something's not quite right when an actor of Liotta's quality accepts roles in straight to DVD films that were originally occupied by an actor the, well, quality of Reeves in films that went to theatres. Anyway, so we have Liotta in the lead role, showing his age a little now, with more than the odd grey hair, a significant weight gain and a performance that just doesn't have the manic intensity that's always been his speciality (which may explain why he's appearing in straight to DVD sequels these days.)
Being a sequel to a film that only managed to be of average quality in itself, it's unfair to expect too much of this lesser profile offering, which, to be fair, has a fairly engaging detective story to it. If only it didn't feel quite so by the numbers and hazy, not quite as intelligent as it thinks it is and gradually more formulaic as it goes on. Oh well, at least it's short. **
Following the killing of his partner outside a nightclub and a spate of recent cop killings, Detective Marty Kingston (Ray Liotta) takes it upon himself to find and bring down who is responsible. But he is taken aback at being saddled with cocky rookie cop Detective Jimmy Rogan (Kevin Chapman) whose dedication and commitment to tracking down the guilty party matches his...and sets in chain a motion of events that will expose a terrifying case of police corruption.
So we have Ray Liotta in a straight to DVD sequel to a film originally starring Keanu Reeves that went to theatres??? Something's not quite right when an actor of Liotta's quality accepts roles in straight to DVD films that were originally occupied by an actor the, well, quality of Reeves in films that went to theatres. Anyway, so we have Liotta in the lead role, showing his age a little now, with more than the odd grey hair, a significant weight gain and a performance that just doesn't have the manic intensity that's always been his speciality (which may explain why he's appearing in straight to DVD sequels these days.)
Being a sequel to a film that only managed to be of average quality in itself, it's unfair to expect too much of this lesser profile offering, which, to be fair, has a fairly engaging detective story to it. If only it didn't feel quite so by the numbers and hazy, not quite as intelligent as it thinks it is and gradually more formulaic as it goes on. Oh well, at least it's short. **