The title is a reference for the police code for officer down, apparently. Because this crew of thieves are planning to steal some files from a Homeland Security depot on behalf of a Russian-Jewish mob, and killing a cop is the best way to make sure all the cops are otherwise occupied.
So Anthony Mackie's character, as a cop himself, decides they can sacrifice his new partner (Casey Affleck). Especially since the partner's dad is also some veteran cop (played by Woody Harrelson), who will call in everybody if his son's dead. Except Affleck saved Mackie's life, so there's a little bit of conflict there for him. Is he really going to set this guy up?
Which is as close as most of the thieves get to any moral stand. Aaron Paul plays a former cop on the crew whose brother gets killed by the Russians to send them a message. He falls apart over that, and the whole "kill a cop" thing only makes it worse. Chiwetel Ejiofor is the leader of the crew, and he does a decent job of playing a guy who knows he's on a string, but can't help thinking he can salvage the lousy situation he's in. And his frustration comes through in how he gets violent and dangerous with anybody who threatens him pulling this job off. He tries to act like he has loyalty to the crew, but when it comes down to it, he's only loyal to himself.
Harrelson's performance is less effective, since he seems to be going for the idea that this cop has been at this too long, seen too much, lost too much. But he plays it so over-the-top in his mannerisms it's hard to take it seriously.
The movie probably tries to wrap too many of its threads up too neatly. Just too many people shooting other people out in the open, or planning to shoot other people in the open. It was very satisfying when the main Russian mob lady (played by Kate Winslet) got her comeuppance. I don't think they needed the bit where she turns out to be racist. She was already obviously a manipulative, cold-hearted asshole, I was fully on board with her being killed. But sure, why not?
2 comments:
I've never heard of this, but I'm tempted to watch it for the very odd cast. Not least Kate Winslet, who I cannot imagine as a Russian gangster.
I didn't recognize her at all, only figured it out from the credits. Gal Gadot's in there as her younger sister, who was in a relationship with Chiwetel Ejiofor's character. She doesn't really get to do anything, but she's one more odd character.
Oh, and that Norman Reedus guy from the Walking Dead is in there as Aaron Paul's brother! It's a more interesting cast than this movie deserves, probably.
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