Badge of Honor

This procedural cop drama shines a light on the vulnerability of serving officers who make fatal mistakes in the line of duty. Director Agustín Fernández shares screenwriting credit on this with Anthony Thorne, Kevin Barrett, and Nick Montalvo. The 93 minutes run-time passes quickly, with the taught script emphasising the tension between the characters rather than the action. The scenes are edited to make for efficient storytelling, with no unnecessary time wasted on the necessary but peripheral, plot-lines. That being said, whenever a scene build-up seems slow, this is done to create atmosphere and build tension. Casting is fairly spot on and all of the actors pull their weight here. The overall mood being pretty dark and intense, is only saved from being grindingly humourless, by the fast pace and plot twists. Overall, an intelligent and solid piece of work, that is well worth a view.

Really enjoyed this movie but - two things didn't make sense though: 1 So they gave the dead boy the cops service issue gun? - even if it wasn't service issue they would soon see the bullet in the boy matched the two bullets fired into the walls - so the boy must have shot himself!! 2. After the bad cop confronted the internal affairs cop outside near her car - normally he would have been reported to his superiors straight away afterwards. As another reviewer pointed out - watch out for the terrible spellings in the end credits eg "sunt doubles'!

Mike ( Jesse Bradford) is a good cop and his partner David (Lochlyn Monroe) is not so good. During a drug bust Mike accidentally shoots a 15 year old kid. David devises a cover-up by planting a gun on the kid and claiming he shot first. Jessica (Mena Suvari) is called in to do an internal investigation which lasts the whole picture with not much complexity. The problem I had with the film is that if the kid shot at the police, there would be a bullet in the wall from that gun. They didn't even check, something that would make this an open and shut case. Instead Jessica must solve the case using hypothetical evidence. The acting was decent. The script was bad. Guide F-bombs, sex, nudity (Natasha Henstridge, Lee Tomaschefski, + 1 other brief FF)

Mr Monroe portrays the cop masterfully. Ms Suvari plays the role of rookie IA detective masterfully. Mr Sheen delivers a credible performance as the referee. Who will win this chess match?