Dogwatch Reviews

As a bitter cop railing against a corrupt world, Sam Elliott works hard but can't make this straight-to-video feature anything more than a bargain-basement BAD LIEUTENANT (1992). Charlie Falon (Sam Elliott) works the homicide beat in San Francisco with his friend and partner Sam Levinson (Mike Burstyn). Sam is stabbed to death outside a strip bar where Charlie is visiting his sometime girlfriend Sally (Mimi Craven). Charlie leaves the bar a moment after Winch (Mike Watson), a snitch the two cops employed, arrives and finds the body. Jumping to the wrong conclusion, Charlie beats Winch to death, then dumps his body at the docks. Capt. Delgotti (Paul Sorvino) assigns Charlie and new partner Mike Monroe (Esai Morales) to investigate Winch's murder, while Dets. Halloway (Dan Lauria) and Orlanski (Richard Gilliland) are charged to search for Sam's killer. Despite Charlie's efforts to put him off, Mike starts picking at loose ends. So does Charlie, who is appalled to learn that his partner was dealing drugs behind his back. Delgotti reveals that Sam was under investigation by Winch, who was actually an undercover cop--the man Charlie beat to death was not only innocent but a fellow officer. The real murderers are Orlanski and Halloway, who are running a ring to sell confiscated drugs. They kill an ex-con and his family after setting him up to make it look like he killed Sam. They then administer a fatal overdose to potential witness Sally, who had been getting her drugs from Sam. Their sloppiness tips Charlie off, just as Mike is piecing together that Charlie killed Winch. Orlanski and Halloway offer to cut Charlie in, which he refuses, leading to a gunfight. Charlie is fatally wounded just as Mike arrives to take out the bad cops. DOGWATCH (the title is never explained; hopefully the film's creators weren't trying to emulate 1992's RESERVOIR DOGS) would like to be a cynical cop movie, but will only seem that way to viewers who don't otherwise watch anything that doesn't star John Wayne. Progressing from tirades against the Japanese, Elliott spends most of the film grousing through his soupstrainer mustache about the death of the good old days, when men made more money than women, women stayed home and cooked (unlike his new partner's spouse, who orders in sushi), and 90 percent of police work was style. You almost feel sorry for him as he tries to deliver dialogue like, "The only broad I ever had was this job." The other big victim in this minefield of cliches is Sorvino, who at least gets to play the fun stereotype of the opera-singing police captain. Better off is Morales as a young cop trying to make good but confronted with the partner from hell. Decent production values, including an inappropriate but enjoyable jazz score by Clint Eastwood mainstay Lennie Niehaus, would have made this a more enjoyable film if only it hadn't taken itself so seriously. (Graphic violence, nudity, adult situations, profanity.)