Seriously,
does anyone still think keeping the car keys under the sun visor is a good
idea? If anyone ought to know better, it should be a corrupt sheriff. Regardless,
while burying a body, he leaves them in that conveniently obvious place for two
mischievous ten year-olds. A dangerous joyride commences in Jon Watts’ Cop Car, which screened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
When
you see Kevin Bacon playing a sheriff, you have to think he ought to be out
there arresting kids for dancing. Instead, Sheriff Kretzer is in bed with a
number of dodgy underworld types. Travis and Harrison just happened to blunder
along at the right time to take his cruiser for a spin. Obviously, this is
trouble for Kretzer. He can hardly explain why he was in the middle of scrub grass nowhere in the first place, let alone how he could allow his
wheels to be swiped out from under him.
However,
by claiming a faulty radio, he can get dispatch calling in regularly on his
cell, as he madly dashes home, while still pretending to be on patrol. Eventually,
Kretzer starts tracking the kids in his own pick-up, but troublesome witnesses
will inevitably cross their paths.
As
Travis and Harrison, James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford really look and sound
like real life kids (as they are), trying their darnedest to act tough through
foul language and what they think is cool posturing. Watts taps into a sort of archetypal
Stand By Me-Huck Finn
youth-on-the-fateful-road vibe that gives the film more resonance than one
might expect. Kevin Bacon is also entertainingly sleazy and cunning as Kretzer.
Unfortunately, the film is more than a tad underwritten, with a fair amount of time-killing
required in between its inspired scenes.
