COPS VS. THUGS REVIEWED
“Cops vs. Thugs” is a crazy film about criminals go legit and the cops trying to keep the status quo. What hurts this film is that the first half of it doesn’t have a centralized character. Think of it like a Robert Altman movie where every third character will die. When the cops and thugs finally draw their lines in the sands, most audiences just expected it to go down. Then, there’s also the newspapers trying to make a buck off revving up both sides.
By the time the film ends, we’ve got several murders and a brutal rape. It’s not done in a traditional Hollywood gangster style. People are just dead in the most immediate and non glamorized style. Kinji Fukasaku is still one of the greatest Asian crime directors. His 1970s work focused on how crime was out of whack without being weepy about it like 70s crime cinema. Nobody is a hero here, they’re just working stiffs trying to make their business work. Plus, it’s all a business.
The cops, the crooks and even the press are manipulating lives just to get by in life.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Featurettes
- Trailer
A/V STATS
- 2.35:1 1080p transfer
- LPCM MONO