Copshop - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Copshop



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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] Movie
2020 and 2021 have been a really weird couple of years for movies. We’ve had a ton of movies side lined for a few years, some are put out on streaming services, others straight to video, with only a handful of high profile titles really making a splash at the theaters. Then there are titles like Copshop which came and went from theaters with barely a squeak of promotional advertisements, then randomly show up on home video with Universal barely spending the time to put out a press release. I’m not sure if Universal wasn’t really sure of the quality of their intellectual property, or whether it was just a bad time of year for promoting stuff. Either way, the film slips into home video with a solid Blu-ray, but a problematic film that feels more like it wants to be hip and cool rather than actually BEING hip and cool.

Copshop revolves around a small Nevada town prison (a rather large one for being out in the middle of nowhere) where bored rookie Valerie Young (Alexis Louder) catches a criminal who seems a little TOO eager to be caught. Well, turns out that this criminal known as Teddy (Frank Grillo with a hilarious fake man bun) is being chased by someone and kind of prefers being in jail instead of gunned down. However, he’s not really as safe as he thought he was, as hitman Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler) finds a way into the jail as a prisoner as well. But the thing is, Bob isn’t the ONLY one who has a contract out on Teddy, and soon the podunk police station is overwhelmed with murderous hitmen and crooked cops who all want one thing….Teddy dead.

Copshop plays out like a police station of the movie Free Fire (they even use the term free fire in the movie which made me chuckle) with the characters forced to make various alliances and double crosses as everyone tries to accomplish their mission. Valerie slings her 44 caliber Ruger Blackhawk single action revolver (sorry, no station in the country would allow you to carry that as a side arm) around in an effort to keep the “villains” locked up, while Teddy and Bob do their best to kill the other and/or escape the station before a cadre of cops descend on them. The movie tries its hardest to be cool and hip and edgy, but instead it feels like a 13 year old edge lord directed the movie.

What’s sad is Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo are both solid actors. Grillo not nearly as much as Butler is, but they both are rather hamstrung by the rather cringey script written by director Joe Carnahan (along with a couple of other names). Alexis is ok as Valerie, but she’s easily the weakest link in the acting chain. Gerard is kind of bored the whole time, just clocking in to say a few lines and then skip off to the trailer for a beer and advil to erase the headache that this production must have been.

Now, the movie isn’t all bad. It’s actually mildly entertaining if you like a grungy and nasty film like Free Fire. There’s some good action near the end (outside of the horribly obvious CGI fire in the station), but overall this is a just a “meh” film. Decent actors given a mediocre script can only do so much. I enjoyed pieces of it, but overall was checking my phone way more often during a movie than I normally do.




Rating:

Rated R for strong/bloody violence and Pervasive language




Video:

] The 2.39:1 AVC encoded Blu-ray looks great, coming to Blu-ray from a 2K sourced digital intermediate. The film is slightly stylized with greens and light blues throughout the movie, and they make HUGE use of the old fashioned “day for night” shots that are just straight up cold blue. Fine details are excellent though, with bright red blood, deep inky black shadows, and only a few times where I noticed noise spikes in darker shots. The inside of the police station with the lights on is razor sharp and impeccably nuanced (you can see cracks on coffee mugs even), and overall this is one heck of a transfer.







Audio:

Copshop’s 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is a bit milder than I was expected for most of the movie’s run time, but was also privy to some AMAZING bass scenes as well. The first 54 minutes of the film is really mild, and even the gunshots and action that happens before that time point is just a little more hollow than expected. Gunshots sound like “normal” gunshots instead of the bass heavy things they always are in movies, and the dynamics and surrounds feel a bit squashed. However that 54 minute marks the start of some crazy bass sequences that had my twins SVS PB-3000’s (shameless plug) absolutely violating my walls with vibrations. Anthony Lamb’s sub machine gun blasting brings with it some serious low end shots that had me finding new vibration areas in my home theater room that I swore I had isolated. However, the surrounds aren’t WILD and the voices can range from really great to perfect. Solid mix, with some great bass, but also a weirdly soft mix for the first 60% of the film.









Extras:

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Final Score: ​

Copshop isn’t horrible, but it’s not great either. I can see why Universal slipped this thing in and out of theaters in record time with no fanfare. The movie is popcorn stupidity without the budget nor the excitement to at least make it a guilty pleasure. Instead the movie just “exists” half way between a decent flick and a bad one, making me give a sideways neutral thumb instead of a thumbs up or thumbs down. Makes for a decent enough rental, but I wouldn’t go about blind buying it.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo, Toby Huss, Tait Fletcher, Alexis Louder, Chad L. Coleman
Directed by: Joe Carnahan
Written by: Joe Carnahan, Mark Williams
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 7th, 2021

Recommendation: Rental

 

[Epoxy1]

This turned out to be much better than I thought. While not a great movie, it is entertaining and as you mention, the LFE packs a punch in the latter half of the film. We're talking sub-20Hz bass that's LOUD! Sure, it's a check your brain at the door type of film, but I'm good with these every now and then.

 

[Michael Scott]

This turned out to be much better than I thought. While not a great movie, it is entertaining and as you mention, the LFE packs a punch in the latter half of the film. We're talking sub-20Hz bass that's LOUD! Sure, it's a check your brain at the door type of film, but I'm good with these every now and then.

yeah, that low freqency pulse that starts when Anthony Lamb goes down the hallway was crazy. I FELT and not just heard the rumble