Verdict
Summary
A light-hearted comedic take on the renegade cop formula, Cop or Hood is a gas, but there are a few instances where it goes way over the top to entertain its audience with outlandish and 007-style stunts, including a crazy one where Belmondo (or his stunt double) streams across the sky hanging from a zip line through a massive valley. It’s the highlight of the film, and there are other stunts that look like Bond-level set pieces.
Plot:
A police commissioner goes ballistic against the corrupt system that saw that his murdered sister would get no justice from his fellow police or judges.
Review:
A police chief and a nude hooker are found murdered in a dingy motel room in Paris, and their murders are immediately covered up by corrupt cops. When a smiley, cocky police commissioner named Stan (Jean-Paul Belmondo) finds out about this he claims that the young woman was his kid sister, and he goes on the warpath to not just avenge her death, but to completely upend the entire justice system which he now understands is corrupt to the core. With cops on the take, gangsters calling the shots, and victims with no one to get justice for them, Stan becomes like a bull in a China shop, breaking and destroying everything there is to break and shatter. He bombs a casino, steals cars, gets into rowdy fisticuffs with fellow cops, and even frames higher-ups just to make the process go quicker. He’s a complete loose cannon, but he also has something to lose, which his enemies are not oblivious to; they kidnap his daughter, whom he has to rescue in a daring one-man army type of scenario. Is this guy a cop or a hood? You decide!
A light-hearted comedic take on the renegade cop formula, Cop or Hood is a gas, but there are a few instances where it goes way over the top to entertain its audience with outlandish and 007-style stunts, including a crazy one where Belmondo (or his stunt double) streams across the sky hanging from a zip line through a massive valley. It’s the highlight of the film, and there are other stunts that look like Bond-level set pieces. There are some crazy car stunts too, and while the film more or less remains grounded in reality, Belmondo acts like a hero from a men’s adventure pulp novel, smacking guys around by the scores, and he never stops cracking wise or grinning. It’s a pretty fun time, and with his huge Dirty Harry gun pointed right at you, the movie delivers its ultimate punch line as a winner. From director Georges Lautner.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray of Cop or Hood comes in a nice 2K restoration, and includes a new audio commentary by a trio of film historians, plus the trailer.
