Teddy Muretto (Frank Grillo) is a fixer with a hit out on his head who decides the safest place for him would be a jail cell. So he sucker punches Police Officer Valerie Young (Alexis Louder) to get himself safely under lock and key. He just did not account for assassin Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler) getting locked up alongside him. 

Copshop is a film that is hard to put a label on. It is co-written and directed by Joe Carnahan who is a director seemingly capable of both incredibly good films and massive misfires. My favourite films by Carnahan are Narc, The Grey and this years Boss Level. On the other hand he also made Smokin’ Aces, The A-Team and Stretch. All of which missed on one or more levels. Copshop’s humour and outlandish characters land somewhere in the territory of Smokin’ Aces which unfortunately for me is a big drawback. 

The tone of the film is 1970’s/1980’s B movie. And all of our characters are stereotypes. The police officers fall into three categories. Straight as an arrow and full of honour (of course this is our protagonist Val), lazy (and fat) or crooked (and also fat). And all are obsessed with food, guns or both. Our villains and anti heroes also fall under archetypes. Grillo’s Muretto is a slippery fixer not to be trusted, Butler’s Viddick is a professional with a code and Toby Huss’ assassin Anthony Lamb is a psychopath who acts as comic relief. The film mostly takes place in a local police station with Val trying to protect Muretto from those who want to kill him which gives marginal throwbacks to Assault on Precinct 13. 

One thing that is always present in Carnahan films though is testosterone in large quantities. That is why one of the best facets of the film is Alexis Louder’s character of Val. Her character is a throwback to the western lawmaker who adheres to their code of honour in a crooked town. Grillo and Butler more than make up for any lack of macho preening though so do not panic if you want some tough men to go with the tough female lead. In terms of performances everyone does a fine job, although Butler and Huss over the top assassins may rub some up the wrong way. 

The biggest drawback for me was how Copshop is the slowest of slow burns before breaking into insanity and then delivering a quirky ending that felt somewhat removed from what has gone before. 

An interesting, if somewhat choppy and peculiar curiosity.