It was heartening to witness Alec Baldwin as an enraged Boston cop for the first time. Of course, this was not the last time viewers saw the actor in an angry or violent role, as almost two decades into the future, we see Baldwin again playing a hot headed character, only this time behind the agency desk. The audience response will not come close to what movie aficionados have in their minds, that’s for sure. But, Baldwin has just clinched a criminal trial over the Rust shooting which resulted in Jim’s character’s death H although, that may be enough for those interested in Bastard out of Readers seeing him in Crescent City, now available.
Woe follows woe and trouble follows trouble and so, another Oscar who is in trouble in the Academy, this time in his ensemble, leads the small group to disorder with Terrence Howard. Although the awful scientific things that Howard does on the Joe Rogan podcast and all have reasonably attracted most of the publicity in Hollywood recently. There indeed come these periods at the life of the actors when they practically cannot say no to any offer and the feeling could not be more previlant on a production like Crescent City. From director RJ Collins, the bleak murder mystery may not be too conspicuous in the endless sea of cop drama cinematics, still seeing Baldwin out there shooing is somewhat of a fun.
The southern city where this banal, paint by numbers narrative occurs is in fact referred to in the film’s title. All eyes might be on Oscar nominees Howard and Baldwin given their recent track records but the script by Rich Ronat clearly described cop Luke Carson Esai Morales as the character who will be working the most hours in the film. Howard takes his usual role as Sutter’s partner. It is for this reason that the film false hopes these soldiers with loose morals would defend a good woman instead.
He relishes how repulsive and sexist Carson’s employees are and how Carson mellows out in between scores with women at disgusting dive bars and dance joints. It’s therefore not surprising that he has a casual reaction to the trauma that the day of the order is disrupted when the whole team is taken to the crime scene – it is a sight to behold, where the primary dirt is a body in a car, cleanly with a head cut off.
This incident is just illustrative of the motivation behind Crescent City director Collins’s effort to differentiate his narrative from all the other bad cop drama amongst other bad cops we have reviewed. Rather, these masterfully executed scenes, featuring gruesome violence with hard R-rated elements, are likely to make the viewer uneasy in a rather strange manner. The film’s very first scene shows an unnamed man at a house party in a mansion where he is offered to drink by some sort out call girl and is then awakened to have his throat cut. Oof. The list of killings continues and all that is left is for Carson and Sutter to bring that bastard down. But who is it? Is it a satanist? A sadistic woman?
Although the language has an enchanting style; certain features encourage the pair to explore the local church which is dominated by a well-meaning yet dodgy Pastor (Michael Sirow) but maybe that’s also a dead end. Carson and Sutter’s captain Howell (Baldwin) calls in rings enforcements in form of Australian immigrant Jaclyn Waters (Nicky Whelan), allowing for some estrogen tolerance (almost 5%) to balanced the testosterone overload. That does not mean she has been rescued from Carson’s constant whiplash – wonder where Carson developed that soft spot for the lass. I find the way Waters eventually acts out makes it all the more painful.
In the relationship between Carson and Waters, the obnoxious display of masculinity, coupled with the protracted sex scene, abuses Crescent City. It gives off the impression of a hard R rated film playing on Cinemax at 3.00 am. Nothing is really engaging or dramatic in this film except for the mastication of a certain segment of the population’s (there are quite a few, sad to say) extreme advertisements for promiscuity and… violence, but such scenes will make little sense in context or little sense at all like sex between two characters who have no business together. At least, Cresent City’s banner advertising clearly states who it is intended for — divorcedг dads, drug dealers and students of fraternity who need a movie as an audio background.
Crescent City, onscreen, does create some effective suspense with every one of them being a potential contributor to these brutal, unexplainable slayings. The audience might be left pesium kjobsis with a question – Is it within the department? Is this the reason why help from Waters was solicited? All the major characters come with skeletons in the closet that become evident when mass hysteria engulfing Crescent City touches the boiling point whereby; as such, they are so many red herrings and fake-outs that it becomes tiresome. Does it make any sense to understand why the serial killer has still not been brought to book by the forces? Did the plans come to pass? Baldwin is given too leeway of bearable anger, in too few scenes, with the word boss Carson and Sutter would make the bear cat with growl.
Not to be unpleasant so Baldwin could be visualized as an ordinary person under Craig Hughes. In Baldwin’s case, however, it seems the much as 90 of the 90-minute feature, is providing the medium where Howard’s and Morales, the moronic characters would be coming for the play’s denouement in the dimwitted timeline. Of all, Baldwin’s portions range as the best since 99% of the team he is hating and making fun of the corrupt cops and the comic sarcasm in him, here and there, seeps in. It’s like a twist with a VOD K-thriller of a certain glen garry ross character.
Baldwin is simply too good for you to not want any more of him. You’ll tend to this craving as Morales and Howard come off as inexperienced one trick ponies here. Still, HQ knows that they are capable of more, particularly Morales who has played a wide range of crime and law enforcement related roles for decades and acted on all sides of the gun (NCIS: LA, Ozark, Chicago P.D.). Anyway. On to the next one, Lionsgate. Crescent City is now out in the theatres, on demand and on digital.
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