Detective Knight: Rogue

Detective Knight: Rouge is directed by Edward Drake and stars Bruce Willis, Beau Mirchoff, Jimmy Jean Louis and Michael Eklund. The story follows veteran detective James Knight (Willis) who pursues a group of thieves from LA to New York after they shoot his partner but soon finds his past conflicting with his current case.

So by now we all know the unfortunate state Bruce Willis has been in which led him to make a bunch of DTV dreck the last few years. Since we're nearing the end of his career I decided to review his last few DTV flicks. I'm pretty sure he has three more in the can (with this being the first in an already filmed trilogy) and Paradise City with John Travolta set to release within a month.

I was a bit surprised to see that this was actually a little more polished and competently helmed than some of Bruce Willis' recent DTV movies. However, as part one of an already planned trilogy, Detective Knight: Rogue suffers from a convoluted plot and a lack of screen time for its main protagonist. Sadly, we don't see Bruce for long stretches of time as the movie focuses on the thieves, as well as a few other side characters that are intertwined with the plot. It's a shame because Bruce is actually giving an okay performance in this. He's in a lot of shots and only on occasion is it noticeable that he had his body double fill in for him. This movie really felt a little more cinematic and you can tell Edward Drake and co. Put more time and effort into this one.

I do also have to give a shoutout to the fact that Bruce does get a cheer-worthy John McClane-like one-liner at the very end that made the entire movie worth sitting through. It's a brief moment that makes me wish more of this movie were like that.

A gang of criminals stick up an armoured truck in LA. It leads to a shootout with some cops. This includes Detective James Knight (Bruce Willi) and his partner Fitzgerald (Lochlyn Munro.) The latter is badly wounded.

Now partnered with ex CIA operative now turned detective Sango (Jimmy Jean-Louis.) They arrive in New York to follow a lead regarding phantom chartered flights.

On their radar is a crooked bookie Winna who also uses ex athletes fallen on hard times for his robberies. One of them is ex pro footballer Casey Rhodes who was one of the gang members involved in the LA heist.

This is an inferior version of Heat. There are lots of location shooting involving guns. The story is dumb. You have scenes where LA cops hang their cop badges around their necks interrogating people in New York where they have no jurisdiction.

The film wants to give a psychological edge by focussing on some of the characters such as Rhodes who turned to crime to provide for his family.

The plot is not very fluid. There is a concentration on other characters as the nominal lead actor was too ill to be in many of the scenes. There is once scene near the end of the film where Willis is replaced by a stuntman with an animal mask on.

I can't understand how this movie passed any kind of selection or "inspection". I mean, the writing is beyond horrible. The dialogue is confused, empty and they look like filling the gaps by using the F word a lot. At this level of bad to average acting I think I prefer to watch a woke movie... Even Bruce Willis doesn't seem at the top of his performance here, he seems sleeping during the entire movie.

The Director worked with the crew of True Detective, the awesome True Detective series. Obviously he didn't learn anything.

2 Stars for the cinematography, the colors, the image. Looks like Hollywood was deserted by good actors, good writers. They still have good cinematographers at least.

Whoever gave the green light to make this film, should be ashamed. Bruce Willis clearly for the past few years, even before his condition was made public, no longer had the competency to act. Yet studios still sign him to make these cheap DTV films to capitalize on his fame and make a few dollars.

Detective Knight's plot was entirely incoherent and uninteresting with no help from the bland characters. It was difficult watching any scene with Willis, as he can only mutter a few words and nod when spoken to. Unfortunately, due to his illness, his personality and charisma are gone. As a consequence, his supporting cast have to frequently say lines most likely meant for his character or respond in ways that hardly come across as an authentic conversation.

I cannot give any reasons as to why anyone should watch this film, even if you are a die-hard Bruce fan. His name is just being exploited here. Go rewatch him in his old glory, and avoid this at all costs.

Seriously, this has gone beyond abuse, it's just sad what he's appearing in for "movies".

With such amazing lines as "well it's not much of a stretch to go from being an ex quarterback to bank robber"..... like what the actual f????

It was shot reasonably well, but nothing in the plot made any sense.

One amazing gem is how these footballers are all pro tacticians, ok let's roll with that without questions, but as a "diversion" his buddy goes and robs a bank, demands they call 911 AND demand that all the cops come out..... So of course, Willis and his unintelligible partner who are from a different city and not even part of the police force.... they go too. Which means of course that of the dozens of cops to respond, not one can hit anything until they draw pistols.

Don't waste your time, even reading this review is wasting more time on the movie than it's worth.