Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
On the run from a lethal assassin, a wily con artist devises a scheme to hide out inside a small-town police station. However, when the hit man turns up at the precinct, an unsuspecting rookie cop finds herself caught in the crosshairs.
Copshop is a lean, enjoyable genre exercise from Joe Carnahan that delivers solid B-movie thrills. The siege-in-a-police-station concept is well-executed with snappy dialogue and decent pacing, though the premise is more clever than the script fully delivers on. Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo bring their usual watchable screen presence, and Alexis Louder is a standout as the rookie cop, elevating the material. Cinematography is competent and functional for the genre without being visually distinctive. The film finds a nice niche between pulpy 70s action throwback and modern thriller but doesn't fully transcend its influences. The ending fumbles some of the momentum built earlier, resolving threads in a somewhat anticlimactic fashion. Overall a solid genre entry that entertains without particularly excelling in any single dimension.