Relentless

This one's funny because it's your basic procedural potboiler about a hotshot rookie detective and his grizzled old partner tracking a murderer, which, yeah, is pretty standard, except here the grizzled old partner doesn't really do anything. He doesn't help solve the case, he doesn't mentor the rookie in any meaningful way, he doesn't offer any profound insights into life… all he does is sit around and bitch and moan about how work sucks and how the boys at the crime lab can take care of it. It'd be like if Morgan Freeman had spent the whole run-time of 'Seven' playing cards with that crew in the library and let Lab Tech #1 do all the work.

A demented serial killer is wrecking havoc on the streets of L.A. It's up to a rookie and a veteran cop to stop him.

Sound familiar? You bet. Yet this film seems to creep up above most other films of the similar genre, thanks in most parts to an unusually effective performance from Judd Nelson. Most of the times I don't particularly like him, but here he fits the bill perfectly.

The supporting performances are also quite good. Robert Loggia plays it straight as the veteran cop and Leo Rossi has never been as appealing as here. Director William Lustic creates a reasonable amount of suspense and keeps things moving at an adequate pace. But mostly, this film will be remembered (by me anyway) as the best Judd Nelson film, and his best performance. He plays a psychopath to a tee.

Judd Nelson rules in this flick. I'm surprised nobody seems to know about this one. If you see in the store, give it a try. I think you'll be entertained. Rossi is pretty good in this too. His banter with Loggia is straight out of a buddy-cop movie encyclopedia, but it works.

What at first seems like yet another bleak cop drama/vigilante thriller from William ("earth tones and unappealing locations ONLY, please!") Lustig gradually turns into a fine little sleeper. "Relentless" is robotically assembled in certain aspects (killer strikes; cops consult; quality time with wife and kid (repeat), but the sharp script (by Phil Alden Robinson under a pseudonym), excellent performances, and steady pace help redeem the more trite elements. Leo Rossi and Robert Loggia are two cops assigned to a rash of murders committed by Judd Nelson, the son of a deranged 'hero' cop (played in flashback by Beau Starr), who has just been rejected from the Police Academy on--you guessed it--psychological grounds. There is a definite snap to the banter shared between Rossi and Loggia (the rookie and the jaded veteran), and certain touches, like the high-strung police captain, lend much to the film's intentional humor; the scenes with Rossi and his wife and son are well-handled; and the killer's contrast is appropriately oppressive (Nelson's performance is more about body language and facial expressions than dialog). Lustig once again tries to ape William Friedkin's tough-guy, action-oriented style (Rossi even gets a chance to race against traffic in the third act), and the result is quite successful--"Relentless" is seriously worth a look.

I am a really big fan of Judd Nelson and he ruled in this movie. He's so good at being the bad guy. Judd plays Buck Taylor, a demented serial killer who picks his victims from a phone book and calls them before he enters their house and kills them. And the victims' names resemble his. And he tears the pages out with the victims' names underlined in red with messages like "catch me if you can" that he leaves on the dead bodies for the police. Buck does these horrid things because his father was abusive and he kills to show his dad that he's good at something. I really enjoyed this movie and it showed how good of an actor Judd is. Great film!