This was going to be made in the late 90s, with Oliver Stone attached to produce. I can't weep that it wasn't - it's a tiresome film. It has the novelty of being set in 1976 during America's Bicentennial but there seems to be no real reason. Maybe it was hoping to be like Shampoo and get this resonance (I thought Shampoo's resonance was overrated) - but at least that had some point: Nixon being elected, the war in Vietnam. This one just as a 4th of July parade which really could take place any year.
The plot has two competing teams after a baddy for the death of a girl - three cops, a mustached tough guy who seems based on Nick Nolte, a Hispanic, and a black female cop vs a super tough ex con. The black female cop remains a novelty so this is a bit interesting. The other two cops could be cut out of the whole film and it wouldn't have made much difference, which is a worry. Also jarring is the fact the super tough ex con plot doesn't really add that much to the party - he loved the dead girl, who was the black girl's sister; he easily defeats every person he comes across. There's no twist, like him falling for the black cop, or turning traitor - or her turning traitor, or her wanting to arrest the baddy instead of killing him.
Actually the more I think about this movie the more irritating it was. The dual protagonists didn't work in Hill's Extreme Prejudice and doesn't here. Hill used to specialise in tight dialogue but here the talk goes on forever - endless monologues. There's characters being unpleasantly racist. There are bits ripped off earlier Hill films like cop-attacking-a-leg-and-it's-revealed-the-leg-is-fake-and-full-of-drugs bit in Red Heat - here the drugs are in an artificial eye. Action sequences are fine.
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