Copshop [Blu-Ray]

Director: Joe Carnahan

Cast: Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo, Alexis Louder

Release Date: December 7, 2021

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis:

Screaming through the Nevada desert in a bullet-ridden Crown Vic, wily con artist Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo; The Grey, The Purge: Anarchy) hatches a desperate plan to hide out from lethal hitman Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler; Greenland, Angel Has Fallen): He sucker-punches rookie officer Valerie Young (Alexis Louder; The Tomorrow War, Harriet) to get himself arrested and locked up in a small-town police station. But jail can’t protect Murretto for long. Viddick schemes his own way into detention, biding his time in a nearby cell until he can complete his mission. When the arrival of a competing assassin (Toby Huss; “Halt and Catch Fire”, Rescue Dawn) ignites all-out mayhem, mounting threats force Viddick to get creative if he wants to finish the job and escape the explosive situation.

Please Note: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘Copshop’ follows a conman named Teddy Murretto (Grillo) on the run in Nevada desert and running out of options. After the bullet riddled Crown Vic he’s been fleeing in is destroyed, he assaults a local police officer in order to get arrested, assuming that trapped in lockup he’ll be safe from the calm and methodical hitman Bob Viddick (Butler) who is hot on his trail. But when Viddick also gets locked up in order to finish the job, it soon leads to a dangerous situation building within the local police station as more hitmen out for Teddy and a crooked cop along with some other bad elements clash. Before long it all reaches a boiling point and the only thing that seems clear is that one way or another, this violent chain of events will find its conclusion in this station tonight.

Directed by Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, The Grey) from a screenplay by Kurt McLeod and Carnahan, from a story by Mark Williams and Kurt McLeod, Carnahan does a fantastic job at the helm of ‘Copshop’ guiding along the action-packed fun and insanity with an easygoing and somewhat humorous style that works remarkably well. The film also benefits from a well selected cast which includes Gerard Butler (Olympus Has Fallen), Frank Grillo (Boss Level), Alexis Louder (The Tomorrow War), Toby Huss (City of Lies) and more, the majority each providing pretty solid, if not at least fitting performances for the most in part in their respective roles.

‘Copshop’ is a wildly enjoyable ride loaded with tense excitement, bloody chaos and plenty of over the top action, craziness and humor that comes together to form one of the most unexpectedly fantastic action films of the year. In many ways channeling the best of the action-cop films from the 1980’s in style, approach and the colorful collection of questionable characters within, it’s a well-paced good time with a magnificent cast that only seems to exceed expectations every step of the way with its playfully chaotic approach and a largely limited environment for most of the violent insanity to play out amid. It never makes the mistake of trying to make things unnecessarily intricate or complex or of attempting to hide anything from the audience, instead concentrating on delivering a refreshingly simplistic, violent and just downright fun ride of an action vehicle the likes of which we don’t see all that often these days. Director Joe Carnahan does a great job guiding along the action-packed chaos with his rewarding style and the well selected cast led by Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo only help to really seal the deal and make this one work so splendidly. I would strongly encourage anyone who is even the slightest bit intrigued by ‘Copshop’ to make a definite point of checking it out whenever possible. It’s a fun, funny and exciting action flick with the charm and style of similar old school action vehicles that genre fans should have a great deal of fun with and won’t want to miss out on.

Overall, ‘Copshop’ is a fun, fast-paced and violent ride populated by questionable characters including cops, conmen, killers and downright psychos who all brutally clash within an isolated police station over the course of one deadly night. It’s a delightfully simple action flick that channels many great genre films from the 1980’s while also crafting its own basic, yet no less clever tale with a perfect setting for it all to go down. ‘Copshop’ easily earns one of my highest possible recommendations. It’s a fantastic action movie with a lot going for it and plenty of bloody chaos and fun throughout all backed by a great cast and the capable guidance of director Joe Carnahan which all comes together to form something quite special. I definitely wouldn’t suggest overlooking ‘Copshop’ and it should easily be worth the price of a rental at the very least.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Copshop’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks great as a whole and provides a clean, sharp and richly detailed presentation from start to finish with no notable faults or issues to be uncovered along the way. It holds up smoothly even during the numerous darkly lit moments and fast moving sequences throughout, never resulting in anything occurring onscreen becoming negatively affected or rendered indiscernible. Overall, this is a very nice high definition video presentation from Universal that should easily satisfy both first time viewers and fans.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack also does its job nicely, offering a crisp, clean and frequently aggressive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, gunshots, vehicle activity and plenty more whipping throughout the various speakers at every reasonable opportunity and never allowing any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, this is a solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that contributes its share of extra fun and intensity to the viewing experience and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Copshop’ does not include any bonus content whatsoever.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

–

Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 6.5/10

–

‘Copshop’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Open Road Films & Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

–

*Screen-Connections.com is an Amazon Associate that earns from qualifying purchases