This was alright, but those kids annoyed the shit out of me. Kevin Bacon and Shea Whigham were good, but it felt like they were barely even in it and it took way too long for anything to happen. However, the finale was well done with the exception of that jarring, abrupt ending. It's not a bad film by any means, just pretty forgettable.

Cop Car

This struck a chord with me. The opening title sequence is super simple but really got me pumped up. The score and the way the text is on screen just set me up for a really awesome film. The first fifteen-or-so minutes where it just focuses on the two boys is brilliant. Their dialogue and pre-teen, boyish naivety is just delightful -- the things that young boys believe and revel in when they are alone together is just hilarious in a sweet, nostalgic way. The use of language, the military terms, and dares (in fact the entire camaraderie between the boys) is really special. I may be overselling it, but it really touched me because that's how I saw the world when I was also that age.

Then the Sheriff (an off-kilter, anorexic-looking Kevin Bacon) enters the picture. It was a great decision to start with attention being firmly on the two boys before we even get to why there is a cop car in the middle of nowhere. The film then coasts along while these boys learn to drive, have fun driving the car, use its contents, open the boot (to find a guy laying in there, tied up), and in general just enjoy life while on these barren country roads. The finale, while sad to a certain degree, doesn't have the necessary intended impact. Watts could have learned a lot from Sergio Leone in terms of dramatic build up, as this was lacking for the ending.

But I dig this film. I love the Stand By Me-esque tone paired with the unhinged, dirty cop sorting out affairs but screwing it up. It's great fun.

B+

I doubt it will resonate or linger in my mind for long, but this is a fun, low-key suspense film. A simple idea executed well for the most part. Set over the course of a single afternoon, the story turns on two children (James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford) who have run away from home. They find an empty patrol car in a field and, in an act of ill-considered mischief, steal it go for a ride. It turns out the vehicle belongs to a highly disreputable policeman (Kevin Bacon) involved with drug dealing and a violent criminal underworld, and he begins madly searching for his lost cruiser.

In regard to the plot, two films spring to mind: Stand by Me, the iconic coming-of-age drama in which a group of friends search for a dead body, and Burn After Reading, in which espionage veterans are bewildered and mystified by the intrigue spun by a pair of low-I.Q. gym employees who do not realize how much carnage and chaos they are causing. Cop Car is inferior to both, but it understands their distinctive charm. As the primary antagonist, an antsy and wiry Bacon delivers a playful, just-shy-of-over-the-top performance. He smartly emphasizes the character's exasperation (he is a bad cop, but also a man who would love to just put this ordeal to rest and recline with a brew and his dogs) rather than too overtly twirling his mustache, which is a considerable feat of facial hair. And the film nicely builds suspense and toys with audience expectations for most of its hour-and-a-half length (almost playing as a stylistic calling card for directorial upstart Jon Watts, whose next project is a big-budget Spider-Man reboot), though it slightly overplays it hand and outstays it welcome at the very end.

I wish the Bacon character stayed dead after he is shot. The film does not require the contrived final chase, with him springing to life after bleeding out for an hour or two on the side of the road. His final, final fate (hitting a cow) is anticlimactic and not as cinematic as the abrupt, nihilistic, everyone-shoots-everyone shootout.

B

I admire the fact the film never explains the precise nature of the sheriff's criminality and what went wrong with the two men in the trunk. The overall scenario is gestured toward (him flushing cocaine and such), but there is never a flashback or a shoehorned-in moment in which everything is cleanly outlined. A big part of my enjoyment of the film stems from its first-person, in-the-moment vibe. We only know what we see and overhear.

Agreed.

I agree with everything David has written above, albeit I liked it slightly more and would give it a B+.

However, was I the only one bothered by how unrealtisc it is that the boys learn to drive the car so quickly?

Didn't bother me at all.

Did not occur to me.

There is one awesome speech in the Cop Car. I think I hated everything else about the movie. And I especially hated the kids.

No. I was surprised they didn't know what "P" and "R" meant. They must've never been in a car before.

You've obviously never been a child before.

Yep. That's why I hated them. Good call!