What to Watch This Weekend: Blue Bayou, Prisoners of the Ghostland, Copshop, Last Matinee, Riders of Justice, Jamie, Simon, Jaws

For An Oscar-Worthy Drama: Blue Bayou (Theaters) 
Blue Bayou is a powerful drama that looks at race, family, love, and life through understated cinematography, complicated characters, beautiful music, and a gut-wrenching, uniquely American story.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Stylish And Violent Dose of Nic Cage Craziness: Prisoners of the Ghostland (Theaters and Digital)

Prisoners of the Ghostland is pure insanity, with a cinema blend of Japanese, spaghetti western, and apocalyptic influences into a Nic Cage fever dream of violence and style.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Suspenseful And Funny Action Film: CopShop (Theaters)

Copshop is a wild ride, with a wonderfully insane cast of characters and a mysterious story that is mixed with stylish touches and equal parts tension, action, and humor.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Musical Journey Of Self Discovery: Everybody's Talking About Jamie (Amazon Prime)

Everybody's Talking About Jamie and rightly so; the movie adaptation of the musical has entertaining and impactful songs, a vibrant cast, and an emotional story about finding yourself.   For more information, check out the review!

For A Killer Movie Theater Experience: The Last Matinee (Digital)

The Last Matinee has a throwback slasher feel with its wonderful classic theater setting, grisly effects and deaths, and quirky cast of theater patrons.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Charming LGBTQ Drama: Love, Simon (Hulu)

The heartfelt and heart warming coming of age story of a young teenager struggling with his own feelings while trying to maintain the status quo in his final year of high school.  It just got added to Hulu so make make sure to check it out!

For An Unconventional Revenge Thriller: Riders of Justice (Hulu)

Riders of Justice tells an unconventional revenge thriller with a misfit gang of mercenaries and plenty of action, humor, and heart.  For more information, check out our review!

For Those Missing Summer: Jaws (Netflix)
The entire Jaws Franchise just got added to Netflix, so those of you missing some of those summer vibes and get over that by watching the original summer ruiner, Jaws.  

Copshop Review: A Stylish, Fun, And Tense Standoff

Release date: September 17, 2021
Running time: 107 minutes
Directed By: Joe Carnahan
Written By: Kurt McLeod, Joe Carnahan
Starring: Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo, Alexis Louder, Toby Huss, Chad L. Coleman, Ryan O’Nan, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Robert Walker-Branchaud, Kaiwi Lyman, Christopher Michael Holley, Marshall Cook and Tracey Bonner.

Tearing through the Nevada desert in a bullet-ridden Crown Vic, wily con artist Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo) hatches a desperate plan to hide out from lethal hitman Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler): He sucker-punches rookie officer Valerie Young (Alexis Louder) to get himself arrested and locked up in a small-town police station. Jail can’t protect Murretto for long, and Viddick schemes his own way into detention, biding his time in a nearby cell until he can complete his mission. When the arrival of a competing assassin (Toby Huss) ignites all-out mayhem, mounting threats force Viddick to get creative if he wants to finish the job and escape the explosive situation.

Copshop is a stylish film that lets you know that this is something special right from the start.  It has this wonderful, upbeat jazz and rock music to start this crazy adventure, only to then let you see the resulting insanity.  The film has an old school feel to a lot of it, with a grainy film and washed out colors look during the introduction.  And the poster even has a classic pulpy feel to it that lets you know this is a throw back type film.  But once it gets going, the ridiculous characters are really allowed to shine.  The main draws were Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo, who both play very different tough men but are a lot of fun to watch.  I really liked Murretto (Grillo) and his con man persona, and Gerard Butler as a hitman that will do anything to complete a job was an entertaining addition.  And when the insane Toby Huss came into the picture, all hell broke loose.  But on top of the bad boys, the cops themselves provide a lot of entertainment.  You can tell that this cast really liked each other because of how entertaining their interactions are.  There are so many cop stereotypes at the police station, and all of them blend together really well.  The stand out is Alexis Louder as Val, with her no nonsense persona and quiet confidence she provides a moral compass and a badass lead for this film.

The story of Copshop is part pulp, part tense standoff, and part pure comedy.  They all blend together well to keep the film exciting and entertaining.  At the start the comedy is more on the dry, more serious action comedy side of things, but when Toby Huss gets involved it becomes genuinely funny.  And each of the characters sprinkle in jokes here and there to keep the audience smiling as they're holding their breath.  The story of Copshop keeps it mysterious, trying not to reveal too much of the mysterious prisoner's backstories or the overall situation until much later in the film.  This leads to an entertaining air of mystery surrounding much of the movie, and the secrets aren't simply limited to the criminals.  The story has plenty of mysteries, twists, turns, and double crosses to keep you on edge.  If there is a negative it is that the story gets a little ridiculous towards the end but I can't really fault the film for trying to keep the audience guessing what will happen.

Copshop is a wild ride, with a wonderfully insane cast of characters and a mysterious story that is mixed with stylish touches and equal parts tension, action, and humor.

Watch it.

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Copshop is in theaters on September 17, 2021.  For showtimes, click here.

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