Cop Car (film)
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Jon Watts |
| Produced by | Cody Ryder Alicia Van Couvering Sam Bisbee Andrew Kortschak Jon Watts |
| Written by | Jon Watts Christopher Ford |
| Starring | Kevin Bacon James Freedson-Jackson Hays Wellford Camryn Manheim Shea Whigham |
| Music by | Phil Mossman |
| Cinematography | Matthew J. Lloyd Larkin Seiple |
| Edited by | Megan Brooks Andrew Hasse |
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Production
companies |
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| Distributed by | Focus World |
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Release dates
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Running time
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88 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $134,552[2] |
Cop Car is a 2015 American road thriller film directed by Jon Watts and written by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn Manheim, James Freedson-Jackson, and Hays Wellford. The film was released in theaters on August 7, 2015, by Focus World.
Plot
Two young boys, Travis and Harrison, are walking through a field. Cursing as they walk, they come to a barbed wire fence and take turns climbing through it. While continuing their walk they come across a cop car in a lightly wooded area. Travis dares Harrison to touch the cop car. He refuses, so Travis touches it first, saying that if he does it so does Harrison. After realizing that there’s no one in the car, the boys try opening the doors. Harrison finds that the driver's side door is open and Travis hops in. The boys play around in the car until Travis hits the visor and the car keys fall into his lap. He starts the car and the boys both hop out and leave. Once they realize no one is around, Travis gets back in the car and puts it into drive. Harrison hops in and they take off, driving wildly through the open field.
The next scene takes place earlier: a cop car pulls up and we see Sheriff Kretzer (Kevin Bacon) get out of the car. He takes a sip of root beer before placing it on the hood of his car. He removes some of his uniform and grabs a bag from the back seat. We see him lay a tarp on the ground and he pulls a body from the trunk. Kretzer struggles to drag the body deep into the wooded area and stops when he realizes that one of the shoes fell off the foot of the corpse. He drops the body into a hole before emptying a bag of quicklime into the hole. He starts walking back towards his car only to realize it is no longer there. Kretzer makes a call to the police station, telling the dispatcher his radio is down and he can be reached on his cell.
Harrison starts playing with the radio before asking Travis for a chance to drive. They come to a locked gate that Harrison uses the car to break through. Travis tries to get Harrison to go as fast as they can before he jumps into the driver's seat himself. They drive off, just missing a woman driving in an oncoming lane.
Kretzer runs towards a trailer park where he steals a car. After driving through town he gets pulled over by a cop on a motorcycle. He calls in a fake robbery nearby and the motorcycle cop responds to the call, leaving him free to leave. He gets a call from dispatch informing him of a report of a stolen sheriff's car and tells dispatch to ignore the report. After getting the other officers to switch their radio to a different channel, he uses the old channel to call the boys, but they do not answer. They are running in a field playing with Kretzer's weapons and gear found in the back seat. The boys hear someone screaming from the trunk of the car and open it to see a man covered in blood. He pleads with them to help him saying the cop is the bad guy. After being unable to talk with the boys, Kretzer dumps bags of cocaine in the toilet. He hears a voice on the radio and runs out to talk to one of the boys to find out where they are.
The man from the trunk has put the boys in the back seat and tries to find a hiding spot before jumping back in the cop car and driving up the road. He threatens the boys, telling them not to tell the man who owns the car where he is. Kretzer shows up in his truck and slowly walks towards the car. While talking to the boys he senses something is not right and ducks behind the car.
The woman that the boys almost hit shows up and walks towards the car, screaming at the boys. She sees Kretzer who asks her to see if she can find the keys to his car, as he claims to be injured. The woman spots the man from the trunk and a gun fight erupts after he shoots the woman. Both the sheriff and the man from the trunk shoot each other. The boys manage to escape the car by shooting out the window. Travis has been hit by a ricochet from the first bullet, so Harrison gets in the driver's seat and drives away with Travis in the back.
The sheriff awakens and enters his truck. He taunts the boys on the radio while chasing them. Harrison sees a cow and swerves to avoid it, while the sheriff drives straight into it. Having finally stopped the sheriff, Harrison continues driving to town with a presumably dying Travis, when Harrison suddenly receives a radio distress call and pleads with them for help, leaving their fates ambiguous.
Cast
- Kevin Bacon as Sheriff Kretzer
- James Freedson-Jackson as Travis
- Hays Wellford as Harrison
- Camryn Manheim as Bev
- Shea Whigham as Man
- Sean Hartley as Motorcycle Cop
- Kyra Sedgwick as Dispatch
- Loi Nguyen as Waiter
- Sit Lenh as Hostess
- Chuck Kull as Officer #1
- Thomas Coates as Officer #2
- Kathleen Bentley as Trailer Park Lady
- Justin Barr as Guy in Trailer Park
- Adam Barr as Drunk at Intersection
- Lily & Cooter Heber as Dogs
- Bluebell as Herself
Release
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015.[3] The film was released in theaters on August 7, 2015 by Focus World, who acquired distribution rights to the film on January 28, 2015.[4][5]
Reception
Cop Car has received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 78%, based on 75 reviews, with an average score of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Cop Car boasts a terrific premise and a grimly gripping opening act -- and for some viewers, that will be enough to compensate for the movie's uneven denouement."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]
Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film two out of four stars, saying "Cop Car builds up a nice, suspenseful head of steam, mixing dark comedy and true creepiness in such a way that one mood never overwhelms the other."[8] Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic gave the film three and a half stars out of five, saying "Bacon can play just about anything, and he's having a good time here as a guy not quite smart enough to keep himself out of trouble, but wily enough to try to dig himself out of it. It's fun to watch."[9] Bruce Demara of the Toronto Star gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Anchored by solid performances and a taut script, Cop Car is a tension-filled thrill ride."[10] Brian Moylan of The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars, saying "The movie culminates in a tense, protracted standoff that keeps the audience on edge for way longer than is comfortable. I mean that as a compliment."[11] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, saying "A potentially fun premise soon turns into no fun at all in Cop Car, a seriously imagination-challenged low-end action thriller."[12] Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a positive review, saying "Watts demonstrates masterful control, pushing right up against the limits of what we can take (even non-parents will be rattled watching the boys mishandling loaded weapons), and yet, at every turn, the screenplay falls short of the picture’s full potential, missing opportunities that could have made this a classic."[13]
References
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