1988 - SHAKEDOWN, a good urban action film

The old corrupt cops on the take plot is dusted off for this very entertaining film with some excellent action scenes and stunt work.  Peter Weller is a public defender who stumbles on to a plot by some NYC cops to extort money from drug dealers.  Sam Elliott is his buddy (a what else), rogue cop who helps him get to the bottom of things.

The film looks like a lot of it was shot on actual locations in NYC and it certainly has the grimy 1980's urban atmosphere with scenes photographed near porn theaters and in some very crappy neighborhoods.  The writer/director James Glickenhaus and his production team have staged some impressive large scale action scenes, one that involves a jet that is actually kind of unnerving to watch.

 

This is the kind of action film that knows what it wants to do and generally hits it's targets unlike a lot of the overblown action stuff that is released today.

 

The film runs a brisk 97 minutes.