This wasn't ever meant to be a deep dive into the Serpico psyche of cops!
Just a simple action/buddy movie with a few laughs and some ok action.
Julia is great in it though.
From memory (hope I'm not mistaken) Sheen was basically offered the movie by Eastwood to help straighten him out as his recent success was reportedly going to his nose.
And yes the real crime committed in this movie IS the colour of the car!!!
The Rookie
1990
Action / Comedy / Crime / Drama / Thriller
The Rookie
1990
Action / Comedy / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Keywords: rookie cop
Plot summary
Nick Pulovski (Clint Eastwood) is a cop, who is presently assigned to the auto theft division and who for the most part of his career has not done anything worthwhile. But when he discovers that a man named Strom (Raul Julia) is the brains behind a major car theft and chop shop ring, he sees this as his opportunity to do something. After his partner Powell (Hal Williams) is killed, the case is then transfered to homicide, so he is taken off the case. And he is assigned a new partner, David Ackerman (Charlie Sheen). a cop who has just recently been promoted to detective. But Pulovski feeling as if Strom is his, and decides to continue pursuing him, but Ackerman who tries to play by the rules is not sure what to do, and he is also a little afraid because of a childhood incident.
Uploaded by: OTTO
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Its Meant to be Dumb
Typical of its kind
THE ROOKIE is one Eastwood film that passed me by over the years so I thought I'd rectify that with a viewing. It's surprisingly entertaining, certainly no high art piece of entertainment, but it does the job well enough as a typical kind of buddy buddy movie that came out in the wake of LETHAL WEAPON. Eastwood is getting a bit long in the tooth by now but still has some good one-liners in the Dirty Harry style, and I've never been a big Charlie Sheen fan but he has some decent volatile moments. The rest is light, fluffy, and filled with chases, explosions and shooting, so very much your typical Hollywood production.
It takes a detour to Stupidville midway through the picture...making it like a Dirty Harry film and "Hot Shots Part Deux" put together!
I was shocked when I looked at the reviews for "The Rookie". It sounded like a decent cop film...but oh my goodness did it suck...and after more than 20,000 reviews on IMDb I cannot recall saying that a movie sucked before...but this one sure did!
The first half of the film isn't bad. In many ways it's like a Dirty Harry Film. Sure, he's in Los Angeles instead of San Francisco and is working grand theft auto duty instead of homicide but otherwise it feels like a Dirty Harry film...especially when Pulovski (Clint Eastwood) has his partner killed early in the story. Pulovski vows to destroy the man behind this...a nasy guy played by Raoul Julia. But to do so, he's stuck breaking in Ackerman (Charlie Sheen)...a rookie.
Up until Pulovski gets kidnapped, the story wasn't bad at all. Then, I can only assume the studio hired chimps to finish writing the story. Instead of making any sense at all, the story simply degraded to a juvenile story with a bazillion dollars spent on special effects and explosions. Here are just a few of the incredibly inane and awful moments that made by head ache:
Ackerman is shot from about three feet away with what looks like a .357 Magnum handgun. He's shaken up but just fine because he's wearing a bullet-proof vest!! His ribs should have been shattered and there should have been internal bleeding...if he was lucky!
Ackerman goes into a bar with about 60 nasty gang members and proceeds to beat them up en masse. Then, he lights the place on fire. There never are any repercussions for this and by the end of the movie, Ackerman is STILL on the police force.
Pulovski is handcuffed into a chair and so the psychotic killer lady decides this is the perfect time to have sex with him. Mmmm...yeah.
Ackerman realizes his wife is in the house and in danger. So, he just drives his motorcycle THROUGH the door and he and the cycle seem just fine!
After Ackerman rescues Pulovski, they drive a Mercedes through the warehouse and out a window from what looks like the 3rd or 4th floor...and are just fine when they land!
I could go on and on...but you have the general idea. Tons of stupid and impossible stunts and everything works out just find by the end of the film. Overall, a brain-numbingly bad film...perhaps the worst of Eastwood's career.