“I also have a no-pain-the-ass policy.”

ZombieDog’s rating: It’s on Netflix

ZombieDog’s review: What to watch, what to watch. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many movies I flagged interest in. It’s in the hundreds to be sure, they just sit there and I never watch them. In general, I set aside about two days a week to watch new material. There has to be something that puts it on my list, such as an actor that I like or genre that I’m interested in. Sometimes I don’t even know why — a movie simply compels me to watch it.

I came across the still of this movie and looked further until I could figure out its name. The attached trailer locked me in, and I was in for a ride. Copshop totally flew underneath my radar. It had a theatrical release where it earned around $5 million, plus another $1.8 for international box office. Honestly, I felt like this was appropriate. My initial guess was that the movie had about a $10 million budget based on how it looked, but I was a little shocked to learn that the budget was $45 million. I have to ask, “Where did the money go?”

Copshop is not original in any way. It’s filmed entirely in one location, a police station in the middle of nowhere. It’s like one of those old-style kidnapping ransom notes where they cut the letters out of magazines and newspapers — except in this case the letters would be other movies, plot devices, stereotypical characters, etc.

Don’t be discouraged by this, though, because it actually works. There’s a heavy stream of suspense that runs throughout the whole film. And it’s kind of cool to use a generic setting in order to tell a unique-ish story.

The movie has Gerod Butler (300) in it, and he’s not even the lead character. The beauty is this is full of working actors who have at least 50 credits behind their names, if not more. Everybody was getting the job done, and that’s really all I can say about it.

I guess I am a sucker for these kinds of movies. I love single-location films, and I really admire the independent cinema feel that they produce. While I’m being truly honest, I found this movie more entertaining than the final Mission Impossible last year. Which is kind of a sad thing unto itself, because that was a pretty good series.

Copshop is about a person — decent or perhaps not — running from the mob. Combine that with somebody chasing this person who may also be a decent person or not. You could probably describe every character here that way. It boils down to: Is this person corrupt or not? If they’re not corrupt, then why not? If they are corrupt, then how corrupt are they? It deserves a little bit a criticism I think that they could put more effort into character development. Especially because they had a pretty competent cast of supporting characters.

I thought that this initial duality was pretty good. We got some back-and-forth banter between the person being chased in the person who’s doing the chasing. It was interesting and it held my attention. As it turns out, this was an open contract and more people show up to collect the bounty. One of these new people is a psychopath who really enjoys killing people and licking glass. It’s heavy on the stereotype.

The situation starts to degrade, and our main character Valerie Young (Alexis Louder) is playing a streetwise tough intelligent officer. She’s not going to take no crap, yet she’s clearly in over her head. Against her better judgment she makes a deal with the hitman. This is easily the best part of the movie. And the reason why I am writing about this film is because there is legitimate tension here about what’s going to happen.

I like Copshop. It was entertaining from start to finish. I’m not really certain where that extra 35 million went, because I’m fairly sure it could have been done on $10 million dollars.

Movies like this were staples of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Prince of Darkness (1987), and Demon Knight (1995) were all memorable films shot at a single location, and all were basically variations on this same theme. Trapped in a place, want to get out of that place.

There’s another point I would like to bring up. While movies have begun to be more and more expensive, their relationship to quality has been flexible… to say the least. Movies with lower budgets require the director to be more creative, actors to be more flexible in their pay, writers to be more innovative.

It’s going to be hard to keep some references out of my film reviews, and one of those references is going to be AI. It is most definitely coming, and it’s going to reshape the landscape. However, just because there’s a new tool available doesn’t mean individual creativity has to stop. Having an imagination is one of the primary aspects that makes us human.

One more thing. I was reading that film school professors were noticing that a lot of the students were having a hard time sitting through complete movies. You know, the profession that they’re studying for. I guess it’s across the board that attention spans are getting shorter.

I would like to offer some advice: Stop it! Yes, that post about the cat is hilarious, but give yourself permission to look away from your phone for the duration of a longer, more complicated video. My love of this film and others is based on immersion. It pulls me out of this life and allows me just for a short time to drift into the ether. It’s true that not every film is worth your time, although if you put some effort in you will definitely find movies that will touch your soul and change your life.

Copshop is not one of those films — but it is a damn fun thrill ride!