I have finally torn myself away from the grip of sweet, sweet lady horror, and I’m ready to talk about literally any other kind of movie. And I realised, hey, it’s been a while since I have added another entry into the Gerard Butler Cinematic Universe I am writing (and the only person reading, but that’s another issue entirely). So, I come to you today, bearing the gift of Copshop, and a chop-up (review, for the sake of this wordplay) with it.
Copshop is just such a great, tight, silly little action thriller. It’s basically a three-hander, between Butler, Frank Grillo, and Alexis Louder, as the two men find themselves locked down in prison with a rookie cop, and the script does a great job balancing all of these characters. It’s the first thing I’ve seen Alexa Louder in, and I was really impressed by her – she held her own playing the straight-ish character, and she had a cool, collected wit to her I really enjoyed. I would also be remiss not to mention Toby Huss, who comes in for a little scene-stealing feature role; in a fair world, he would have been a star after Carnivale, and I am always happy to see him turn up. Director Joe Carnahan never takes itself too seriously, and the tone gives it a slickness a less stylistic movie might not be able to get away with.
And that, to bring it back to the man of the hour (the many, many hours, actually, but who’s counting?), this kind of tone is a perfect backdrop for his talents. Some people think I do this series as a bit, but I honestly do enjoy Gerard Butler (and I do enjoy a bit too, that has to be said) as an actor, and I think he’s seriously underrated. He’s got a fun, easy charisma that lends itself well to this character, hard edges but softer in the middle, and he knows his way around an action sequence. Superhero movies have really scrubbed all the hard edges off it’s leading men (or stuck on so many it just started to look artificial), and Gerard Butler is one of the few leading men out there I really love to see filling these archetypal roles.
Copshop is a whole lot of fun, even if you’re not a fan of Butler, which you really should be by now. one-shot, sleek, and exceptionally entertaining drama-thrillers – I would love to see more movies like this in the cinema. Or maybe I just want to see more stuff with Gerard Butler at the cinema. Yeah, that could be it.
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Variety)
No But Listen 