Review By Jon Donnis
Every time I review a Bruce Willis film, I am convinced it will be the last one ever, since he has retired from acting, but they keep coming thick and fast. And in Detective Knight: Rogue, Willis is actually in it more than some of his other recent films, and takes a more active role too as opposed to just being in one room.
In what is billed as the first of a trilogy of films, it is almost Halloween, and mask wearing criminals Casey Rhodes (Beau Mirchoff), Mike Rochester (Trevor Gretzky), Nikki (King), and Mercer (Large) are robbing an armoured money transport truck, they manage to get away with over $100,000, after a big shoot out with the cops. Detective James Knight (Bruce Willis) and the police are unable to stop them as they escape to New York, and they leave Knight's partner critically wounded.
Knight realised he has to go to New York to track them down, but of course he has a history there which is about to clash with his present.
Casey Rhodes (Beau Mirchoff) takes a cut of the money to give to crime boss Winna (Michael Eklund), Winna convinces Casey to take on another job, to steal a rare Wayne Gretzky collector's card from an auction, with a value of over $1.25m
We then get plenty of cliched scenes before the next heist is enacted, whether it is dialog between cops, or dialog between the criminals, which gives us a better understanding of who is who, and so on.
This is a pretty straight forward action film, you will have seen the plot a hundred times before, but do you really care? Films like this are designed to pass an hour and a half, without the viewer needing much thought.
Some simple question and answers.
Q. Are the action scenes convincing?
Q. Are the action scenes convincing?
A. Yes
Q. Are the characters interesting?
A. Bruce Willis stands out as Detective James Knight, even if his part is given limited time. The other characters are rather cliched, but still decent.
Q. Is the ending satisfying?
A. Yes, it allows plenty of room for the sequel, the guys you hate end up dead, the guys you like, mostly survive, everything you want.
Q. What is the run time?
A. About 1 hour 40 minutes, which although could probably have been shortened without any loss to the plot, it is perfectly ok.
The Good
Very good quality action scenes, everything looks convincing and is definitely entertaining.
The Bad
After the initial scene, there is some dialog that drags, and feels like filler, the second half of the film is much better.
Overall
A decent action film, good action scenes, decent acting, fair plot.
I score Detective Knight: Rogue a decent 7.5/10
Out now on Amazon Prime - https://amzn.to/3G75c0G
