Movie Review: 'Copshop' Starring Gerard Butler

Copshop is not a movie that I was looking forward to. I have a long standing one sided feud with actor Gerard Butler. He has no idea that I exist and I hate every movie that he makes more and more and more. So, I did not go into Copshop expecting much other than Butler’s usual brand of meathead, mindless, action nonsense. Butler’s brand is more bullets than brains and I can’t be mad at that, other actors are quite good at that brand of action. Butler’s version unfortunately tends toward the smarmy and obnoxious and that’s where I draw the line.

In Copshop, Butler is part of a very unique ensemble of characters and it really helps tone down his hamminess when he’s not center stage. It also helps that Copshop was directed by Joe Carnahan, a true artist of movie violence. Carnahan’s stylized violence is something I have really enjoyed over the years including his best movie, Narc starring Jason Patric and Ray Liotta and his second best movie, Smokin’ Aces which has a similar ensemble approach as Copshop, though with many, many, more big name stars.

Copshop stars Frank Grillo as Teddy, a Las Vegas ‘fixer,’ though he despises that term. When we meet Teddy, he’s just left behind a smoking, bullet-riddled, cop car and is stumbling toward a desert casino with a bullet in his gut. At the casino, Deputy Val Young (Alexis Louder), is trying to break up a drunken fight amongst members of a wedding party. That’s when Teddy meets Val by punching the deputy in the face. Val recovers and tases Teddy repeatedly before arresting him. Arrested is what Teddy wants, he’s on the run from killers and hopes incarceration can buy him some time.

Teddy has a very large contract on his head and many would like to take the bounty. The bounty hunters include Bob (Butler), who comes up with a plan to get arrested himself and get in the jail next to Teddy. Faking a drunk driving incident, Bob narrowly misses a couple of State Troopers on the highway and proceeds through a routine of being heavily intoxicated. Bob’s plan works but the drunk tank cell is opposite of Teddy’s cell and thus he can’t quite get to Teddy yet and will need another plan.

Complicating matters is another, even more ruthless and crazed bounty hunter, Anthony, played by Toby Huss. Anthony is aided by a man inside the jail, Office Huber (Ryan O’Nan), who is deep in debt to drug dealers connected to Anthony. Helping Anthony kill Teddy will help square his debt but it also means taking part in the murder of most of his co-workers, including several men he considers good friends.

The plot table set, Copshop becomes wildly violent and off the wall, in other words, classically Joe Carnahan. Val ends up in the lock up area with just herself, Teddy and Bob and she must decide which of the two men that she can trust. Val gets shot in the midst of Anthony’s chaotic entrance to the Copshop, and she needs medical attention soon. Who she chooses will likely decide her fate.

Joe Carnahan makes smart choices in how he tells a story. Copshop may be broad and it certainly stretches believability to a breaking point here and there, but mostly, Copshop is really clever. The scenes between Louder’s idealistic cop, Grillo’s grifter and Butler’s killer for hire are brisk, terse and at times darkly funny. Carnahan loves this kind of gritty interplay of manipulation and power dynamics and he’s great at pitting characters against each other in grave situations.

Carnahan’s secret weapon in Copshop is Alexis Louder’s deputy. Louder is a charismatic performer scripted with a strong sense of right and wrong. Her character isn’t naïve and or arrogant, she’s resourceful, street smart and practical. Louder’s cop is not about to be pushed around by the posturing egos of Grillo and Butler and despite being a relative newcomer, Louder more than holds her own opposite the veteran actors.

Copshop moves quickly and is skillful in presenting outlandish, OTT violent spectacle. There are issues here and there, the character of Huber is such a spineless punchline at times that he becomes cringeworthy, but thankfully he never tips over into completely unwatchable. There are some overly familiar elements and I can imagine some people who are not used to Carnahan’s brand of violence becoming exhausted during the more protracted action set pieces.

That said, I really thought I was going to hate Copshop and then came out thinking that I might be willing to watch it again someday. Joe Carnahan may never have lived up to the lofty expectations that followed Narc and Smokin’ Aces but he’s carving a comfortable niche for himself in the action genre as one of the few directors dedicated to a very specific style of action. There is nothing perfunctory in Carnahan’s direction, his characters and scenes have a strong sense of purpose and attitude.

It’s an attitude, specific to Joe Carnahan that I truly enjoyed in Copshop, enough to recommend it. This is the first time I have recommended a movie starring Gerard Butler that didn’t have him voicing a Viking riding a magical dragon in a cartoon. I’ve literally never written a positive review of a Gerard Butler live action movie since he broke into movie stardom in the late 1990s. This is a landmark moment for me. I don’t have anything personal against Gerard Butler, I don’t know anything about him as a person, I’ve just hated all of the movies he’s chosen over the years.

Copshop opened in theatrical release on Friday, September 17th, 2021.