High-Octane
Summary
Far from perfect, Muzzle is an old school cop thriller that offers a fresh take on the formula. Eckhart is great as always and the dogs are adorable, even when they’re mauling people.
Plot: After his canine partner is killed, a renegade cop (Eckhart), goes after those responsible and uncovers a huge conspiracy.
Review: Aaron Eckhart is rapidly becoming action cinema’s go-to guy. When I say action cinema, I don’t mean CGI driven PG-13 garbage. I mean old school action cinema. The good kind.
Here he plays Jake Rosser, a PTSD stricken cop who goes over the edge when his canine partner, Ace, is killed in the line of duty. Rosser’s investigation leads him down a dark path that puts him on a collision course with his superiors, who are all ass-kissing dipsticks. He also gets a new partner in the form of Socks, a police dog with a set of nasty titanium incisors.
The premise of this film is hokey to say the least, but thanks to Muzzle’s earnest, forthright, direction, and willingness to play it straight and real, we get a fairly convincing, hard-edged cop thriller that gives Eckhart a fairly complicated, but likable character to play.
More of a crime thriller than an outright action flick, Muzzle opens with a very effective gunfight and it closes with a bigger one that had me wincing at how gory it became. Of course the villains are a despicable bunch, so we don’t mind seeing them get ripped apart.
What makes this film work better than it should, is the relationship between Eckhart and Socks, (they’re both essentially the same characters – both are misunderstood outcasts with dark pasts), and director John Stalberg, Jr. wisely focuses on his two broken soul leads.
I also liked how the pic showed that canine cops are just as respected and honoured by street cops as much as the human ones are.
Muzzle ain’t all perfect though. Some of the action is hard to follow, and there’s a big exposition dump right near the end that could’ve been tightened up for sure.
Eckhart is becoming one of my favourite action stars. He seems to pick scripts and material I like, that keeps things real. Muzzle is far from brilliant, but it’s fun while it’s on and the end left me teary. I was moved.
Most of the crap made for cinemas these days doesn’t even come close to leaving that kind of an impression on me.
