Josh Pollack, a naive and ambitious reporter, is convinced the F.R.A.T., an elite force within the Edison Police Department, is corrupted. Working on a homicide case, he begins to unearth evidence which suggests that the entire justice system is willingly turning a blind eye to the abuses of the this force. When his life and that of his girlfriend are threatened from his research, he join forces with his editor, a once-famous reporter, and a renown private detective to bring down the F.R.A.T. and every one behind it. Upon discovering a den of corrupt policemen, a fresh-faced journalist makes shaky allies in a jaded reporter and investigator for a powerful district attorney. It's a vehicle… but I'm not entirely sure for whom. This tells you two things you need to know about this film. Firstly, there are a couple of names from the wider entertainment field but they are either both so bad or so able that one cannot tell who the big draw is. Secondly, the film is sufficiently good to not have to worry about whether the lead is any good anyway.<br/><br/>In the event both LL Cool J and Justin Timberlake are perfectly good. The film itself has the makings of an interesting hack-flick but David Burke has obviously got a sinister remit to concentrate on the stars more than the thing warrants. Almost as interesting as the story (which is just a cop-corruption action-thriller) is the tension between creating credible characters and fulfilling the production demands at large. Clearly Morgan Freeman is simply out to enjoy himself in all this, as is Kevin Spacey's scene-stealing wig. 5/10 A very strong cast makes a mundane 'cops gone wrong' story very good. Pollack (Timberlake) is an aspiring Pulitzer Prize writer for a tiny newspaper when he falls into the story of a lifetime. Bad cops (ala Magnum Force) hit some brothers in the wrong place at the wrong time and are almost nabbed for their indiscretions by the court. Deed (Cool J), Lazerov (McDermott), and the leader of the bad cops of an organization called FRAT, Tillman (Heard) try and hide their illegal street cleaning activities, while district attorney Reigert (Elwes) and lead investigator Wallace (Spacey) as well as Ashford (Freeman) help Pollack go through the basics of good journalism and build the story. Nice camera work and good dialog. Most of the actions sequences seem too close.
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295 weeks ago