Fairly standard cop thriller with a slightly over the top level of gratuitous violence.
The usual cops operating outside of the law, several executions rather than arrests... Perfunctory or poor direction by Eastwood.
There's no charm between Charlie Sheen (who just looks constantly constipated) and Clint (who is just constantly abrasive).
It's amazing to think he would be in 1993's In The Line of Fire just a few years later after putting out run of the mill stuff like this.
Couple of decent practical stunts which is par for the course for that era.
6/10
Shout by r96skBlockedParent2022-02-05T02:38:37Z
Decent action flick, rubbish buddy cop movie.
The reason for the latter is that Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen just don't really work as a pairing, when I think of great buddy cop duos - see the preceding 'Lethal Weapon' or the succeeding 'Rush Hour' - I always recall the banter and that the two are subconsciously looking out for each other. Here, it just felt like Eastwood and Sheen weren't connected - despite being policing partners.
The action elements help raise this film from the depths though, as all the set pieces and stuff like that come off - there's one scene that Michael Bay would love, I'm sure. The support cast are alright too, I recognised - among one or two others - Xander Berkeley and Tony Plana.
Despite those (minor) positives, the initially mentioned parts override them in 'The Rookie'. These type of films need to make you love watching the two leads together, but here I simply didn't - they make for an average partnership, at best.