Officer Downe (2016)

Movie Info

“We can rebuild him”

Officer Downe (Kim Coates) is a one many precinct.  When he gets hits, he keeps going…and when he gets killed, he keeps going.  Assigned to Downe by Police Chief Berringer (Lauren Vélez), rookie officer Gable (Tyler Ross) finds himself as part of Downe’s support team, but Downe doesn’t need or want any support.  The crime leaders of the city call in Zen Master Flash (Sona Eyambe) to stop Downe once and for all, and Gable must uncover Downe’s secrets to save him.

Directed by Shawn Crahan (who also appears in the film as “The Lion”), Officer Down is a sci-fi action comedy comic book movie.  The movie is based on the Image Comics series by Joe Casey and Chris Burnham and was met with negative reviews.

I won a copy of Officer Downe at my local comic shop when it was released on Blu-ray.  Never looking a gift movie in the mouth, I took it…but found it a bit hard to stomach once watching it.  A blend of “all that is cool”, Officer Downe is the type of movie that has a vision for itself, but that vision is kind of a sloppy, uneven mess.

Nuns with guns

The story is essentially a modernization of RoboCop in a lot of ways.  Downe is a police officer killed in the line of duty that has agreed to be resurrected to become a one man war on crime.  Like RoboCop, Downe find an ally in his partner who believes in him (though even that belief is all over the place), and Downe fights a group of criminals that are crazy both visually and in their behavior.  The difference that does make Officer Downe a bit unique is that Downe is being fueled by those who can no longer physically contribute to society due to disease and disorders, and they voluntarily give their energy and willpower Downe to resurrect him time and again.

I have liked members of the cast in other things, but they are all pretty miserable here.  They seem to all have the direction to act to the extreme and they willingly do that with little restrain or thought for the character.  Kim Coates channels a Bruce Campbell in his Downe character and Tyler Ross is obnoxiously noble (but is a pretty rotten cop in his consistency).  Lauren Vélez is the cliché yelling commander which just feels like an amped up version of her Dexter character.  Alison Lohman appears as one of the killer nuns while Sona Eyambe tries to play the cool villain (but the villain isn’t that cool).

Do you want down, Downe?

The movie visually tries to blend 300 with Scott Pilgrim, and it does it poorly.  It is meant to feel high octane (it doesn’t feel high octane) and it is meant to be flashy and “comic-booky”…which has been done to death in recent years.  Officer Downe does it poorly.

Officer Downe is kind of a miserable movie.  Though it is short, it feels long and tedious.  I can see where they were trying to go with the film, but instead of being a fun and furious movie, it came out dull and limp.  The film seems to set-up sequels, but fortunately, I think Officer Downe is down for good.