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.
Review of Officer Down
