Badge of Honor

OK for a got-nothing-else-to-do movie. Whomever was in charge of writing stuff in this film needs spelling classes ASAP. Apart from the "Assualt" mistake in the report, the Credits at the end are FULL of errors: The character appears as "Jocob", another one is "Smauel". Then there are three "Sunt Doubles", an "Add'l Firs Assistant B Camera", an "Assitant Costume Designer" and a "Set Cosumers Supervisor". I'm sure there are other goofs I didn't catch, especially among the First and Last Names of people involved in the movie. One positive thing about the movie is FINALLY using people who really do speak Spanish playing the roles of Latinos something Hollywood, completely surrounded by people from Central and South America doesn't usually do. Maybe it was Martin Sheen's influence or that Agustin's ear would hurt from the bad Spanish found in most American movies. Unfortunately, the director wasn't the right person to check the credits or assign that job to whomever did it.

As a low-budget DTV production, "Badge of Honor" is a credible effort. It's not in the same league as "We Own the Night," "Street Kings" or "Serpico;" however, it maintains the audience's attention and interest. Its greatest strength lies in credible performances by the entire cast. It's greatest weakness is undoubtedly the incessant camera movement. I can't remember a single shot that looked as if the camera were locked down. The amount of camera motion, particularly in inappropriate shots, was frequently distracting. It also seemed a little thin on forensics and police procedures. For that matter, a large drug deal in an early scene didn't seem very realistic. The POV was also a little muddled, as at least two characters had memory flashes. Compared to top-notch police procedural films, it ranks somewhere in the middle of the herd, well back from the must-see films. However, compared to DTV productions shot in Eastern Europe starring faded action stars from the 1970s and 1980s, it's a much more rewarding cinematic experience.

Summary: This film is fantastic. Deserves a much better rating than it currently has on IMDb (4.7). Don't see why this movie's average rating is not at least a 7.

Comments:

The rare movie with an empowered, non-hypersexualized female lead character, whose humanity is the most important thing about her, not merely that she is a female. She is not fetishized nor relegated to caring only about relationships with men, nor does she need to be rescued by a "big strong man" to do all the dirty work for her. Rather, she is capable of doing anything any human person can do, but what in cinema is often reserved for males alone, such as wielding worldly power, being emotionally tough, and perhaps most importantly, simply being independent. It is not enough to merely put a gun in a female character's hand and let her shoot someone, and then celebrate the movie as non-sexist. Not if said female character is still portrayed as utterly relationally dependent on men, as usually happens in such movies. Not here.

In line with this, the movie takes a far more realistic, compassionate approach to how it portrays human relationship, character, and choice, rather than the macho, male-dominant, "shoot/beat up everyone and make it better" tropes in so many other movies with similar subject matter. It actually takes the time to show the plot from the point of view of all the characters, female or male, adult or child, powerful or powerless, "glamorous" or ordinary. One example being a gunshot victim's sister. Just an ordinary kid, no reason the movie has to include her at all, but it does, because this movie cares about the human element. In this regard Badge of Honor is very reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's best directorial work, such as "Gran Torino" and "Unforgiven".

Mr Monroe portrays the cop masterfully. Ms Suvari plays the role of rookie IA detective masterfully. Mr Sheen delivers a credible performance as the referee. Who will win this chess match?

All the scenes in the movie and the story,u would have seen it all before, most of the time done better than how it's done in this movie. But still this movie is very watchable and had some interesting parts. The acting in this movie is solid too. Not award material but for what they are given,i think the actors have done a very good job. Lochyln Munro ,especially,was really good in his role. He seemed so involved and committed to his role and it shows in his performance. The director could have directed his scenes better though and maybe build a little more character arc for him. And they could have also used Martin Sheen more. I didn't like the climax much as it seemed rushed but other than that i think it's a good enough movie that u can rent and watch or if u happen to catch this movie on TV,it's worth spending some free time on.