Shakedown

I was expecting more of a buddy buddy cop film coming from Peter Weller and Sam Elliot. Elliot plays the cop (It’s like watching Martian Riggs if he was getting to old for this shit), While Weller is not a cop (not even a…Robocop), he’s a lawyer.

Weller’s playing a crinmal lawyer whose last case before he goes corperate is to prove that a crack dealer did not kill a cop in an undercover bust that may have been crupted from the start, and Elliot happens to play a friend whose latest case vaguely connects the two.

Barely any Elliot and Wellar doing buddy cop stuff together, it can almost work as two different movies and Wellar and Elliot are on the cover of the poster looking buddy buddy in order to sell tickets. Possibly at the time both actors were equal in stardom (but I don’t see how when Robocop had come out a year before), so they get to equally be on the poster together.

I loved watching the movie cause it’s a tribute to Old New York. Shakedown is one of those movies that makes New York a distinct charater and I love that.

Other than that the movie did through me off cause I was expecting a buddy cop film but…did not get that. I should watch it again knowing what it is, but right now it’s just ok. Weller is a cool dude to watch. A few of his lines were 50 years before even this film was released but he has delivery, actually perfect for the lawyer he’s playing. Elliot was perfect as a drunken blue collar cop whose dirty but uncompromising. Honeslty his charater is a bit of a waste here. It would be better served if he was in a buddy cop movie with a young Murtaugh.

The movie did have a message that I can get behind. Richard Brooks plays a strangly honest drug dealer who understands he’s not innocent but he did kill a man in self defense. Wellar and Elliot in their old age are probilly better known for playing charters that would be Trump supportors hands down but this movie drills in that democratic process so much that I wished it was not so cheesy.