**SPOILERS** Much like the Clint Eastwood 1973 movie "Magnum Force" the film "Officer Down" is about a group of corrupt policemen who take the law into their own hands and go on a killing spree offing all the major drug dealers in the city of L.A.
The killer cops are lead a a religious psycho officer Philip Gammon, Casper Van Dien,who we learn later in the movie is the son of a top L.A police commander Donald Hallows, Ted Shackelford. Hallows who himself turns out to be so unstable in his actions that he has his gang of crime cops turn on even innocent bystanders who were willing to give evidence to the drug killings, in order to protect the identity of the cop killers. Hallows even has the killer cops go a step beyond even killing innocent citizens by having honest cops, and their families, who got wind of what's really going on murdered by his dirty cops; which makes them even more dangerous then the most hardened and vicious criminals in L.A.
The best reason for seeing "Officer Down" is the many aerial photography scenes of L.A in it but the story itself is hard to take. Not that there aren't any corrupt cop in LA in real life but the cops who are breaking the law in the movie are so stupid and ridicules that you wonder why they weren't caught before the film even began?
Sherilyn Fenn as Det. Kathryn Shaunessy is a bit too melodramatic as the good cop up against the system that's protecting the wrong doers in the department. Kathryns partner Det. Gary Hill, Jerry Knoll,is totally unbelievable as her partner who's, you guessed it, one of them but doesn't seem know it. Garry is totally unconscious in what trouble he's putting his innocent partner into by his actions. We get to see the good side about Gerry with the explanation of him taking $100,000.00 of dirty money from his crooked police captain Taggert (Larry Drake) who's another high ranking crook in the department, to pay for his sick fathers medical bills.
Casper van Dien is also hard to take in his zombie-like and murderous actions that are so outlandish that even his dad, Commander Hallows, a high ranking member of the LAPD had trouble covering them up.
The killer cops are lead a a religious psycho officer Philip Gammon, Casper Van Dien,who we learn later in the movie is the son of a top L.A police commander Donald Hallows, Ted Shackelford. Hallows who himself turns out to be so unstable in his actions that he has his gang of crime cops turn on even innocent bystanders who were willing to give evidence to the drug killings, in order to protect the identity of the cop killers. Hallows even has the killer cops go a step beyond even killing innocent citizens by having honest cops, and their families, who got wind of what's really going on murdered by his dirty cops; which makes them even more dangerous then the most hardened and vicious criminals in L.A.
The best reason for seeing "Officer Down" is the many aerial photography scenes of L.A in it but the story itself is hard to take. Not that there aren't any corrupt cop in LA in real life but the cops who are breaking the law in the movie are so stupid and ridicules that you wonder why they weren't caught before the film even began?
Sherilyn Fenn as Det. Kathryn Shaunessy is a bit too melodramatic as the good cop up against the system that's protecting the wrong doers in the department. Kathryns partner Det. Gary Hill, Jerry Knoll,is totally unbelievable as her partner who's, you guessed it, one of them but doesn't seem know it. Garry is totally unconscious in what trouble he's putting his innocent partner into by his actions. We get to see the good side about Gerry with the explanation of him taking $100,000.00 of dirty money from his crooked police captain Taggert (Larry Drake) who's another high ranking crook in the department, to pay for his sick fathers medical bills.
Casper van Dien is also hard to take in his zombie-like and murderous actions that are so outlandish that even his dad, Commander Hallows, a high ranking member of the LAPD had trouble covering them up.