Director: Tim Ritter
Year: 1998
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Exploitation
Plot:
Committed to upholding the law, a police officer with a deluded sense of entitlement about the position embarks on a reign of terror in the community trying to use his misguided sense of justice to carry out the peace in his night-long rampage of the citizens.
Review:
For the most part, this was quite the goofy cheesefest. One of the greatest examples of that is the fake documentary approach that follows the titular officer around on his various activities. There's a fine sense of over-the-top glee exhibited by the way this handles the extreme actions here, from the harassment of the drug lord in his house as he forces him into a drug overdose for his own amusement to just walking around a convenience store doing whatever he wants and then the destruction of the merchandise at a pawn shop which really showcases his abuse of power the finest. This is all an excuse for a fantastic performance from Wyndkoop as he throws himself into such a role as he goes into such deviant behavior with a glee that makes watching his behavior enticing to watch. Loud, rude, crude and absolutely vulgar in every way possible, there's a lot to like with how he pulls his character off.
With the approach in the filmmaking style with it being a mockumentary of the popular TV series at the time, this gives the film a fine anthology style where it takes numerous brief segments together that tell a whole story. This allows for various bits of him going around on the various calls taking everything into his own hands which all tends to go against the expected behavior of a police officer. While he initially uses every situation to do legitimate police-work, the fact that his deluded behavior and continuous crude antics that go against everything else that cops are expected to perform create a sense of fun here with his picking up a hooker or crashing and then joining in on a loud house-party with a drug of drugs around the table offers up the finest example of those scenarios. These here are what make this one fun as it does have a few minor flaws.
The main problem with this one is the fact that there's just so much jerking around in the storyline here that it's oftentimes hard to keep track of what's going on. The jerking faux documentary-style camerawork doesn't really help, but the fact that this one tends to get lost in a sea of him throwing his weight around to do anything he wants in the situation causes the film to get lost in the sea of deviant behavior. As well, that can cause the film to become way too dragged out at times with the way this appears to become a series of random encounters that point to the same general tone of his deviant behavior driving the film forward which all makes for a rather troublesome time. Coupled with the low-budget on-the-streets feel that might rub some the wrong way, these here are what hold this one down somewhat.
Overview: **1/2/5
While clearly not the greatest example of the genre in the field, this one has enough to like about it that it does remain somewhat watchable in the long run. Only give this a shot if you're a fan of the creative personnel or these ultra low-budget shot-on-video films, while those looking for more substance in their films should avoid altogether.
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