Cop Car

Once in awhile a unique sleeper comes along which, unfortunately, is not met with the attention it deserves. Meanwhile, the Hollywood machine keeps cranking out subpar films with screenplays seemingly written by children. In fact, the two central figures of Cop Car, young boys played by James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford, could easily pass for Hollywood writers. Cop Car is a slick and delightful little thriller about an abandoned (you guessed it) .... cop car sitting in the middle of nowhere.

Two of the most ridiculously naive kids come upon the car and the excitement begins. The cop car belongs to Kevin Bacon's character, a small town sheriff with some unfinished bad behavior unwittingly interrupted when his car goes missing. Bacon plays the role of a bumbling psychopath quite well. I always enjoy Bacon in decent low-budget thrillers (Stir of Echoes comes to mind) and he definitely has fun with this role. I had a bit of an issue with how dumb the two kids are portrayed in Cop Car. Kids cannot possibly be THAT stupid. However, if an aside of the film was to slip in reminders that children and guns are a bad mix or if the message was that guns are bad in general, mission accomplished. 

Cop Car is a charming low-budget thriller that will put a smile on your face and moments later cause uneasiness owing to the generous amount of dark humor set against interesting middle-of-nowhere scenery and Coen-esque intensity. 3.5/5.
Directed By: Jon Watts