The Rookie (1990)

Elevator Pitch: Nick Pulovski is a veteran LA cop on the track of Strom a mastermind in the auto thieving business, when his partner is killed and he is assigned a new partner David Ackerman, who is the son of a millionaire. Nick is unkind to Ackerman. In a confrontation David is shot, but fortunately is wearing a vest, and Nick taken hostage by Strom and his female sidekick, Liesl. David goes out in search of Nick and also goes to his father to fund the $2 million ransom demanded by Strom. But Strom has no intention of surrendering Nick, who is able to escape, and with David’s help escapes from the building where his has been held captive in a handy Mercedes. With Strom on the run towards the airport can the detectives catch him before he leaves the country?

Content: There is no nudity but quite a bit of drinking and a male rape, apparently causing some controversy. There are a couple of extensive car chases and at various times a lot of performance cars are seen. Strom’s assist and Leisl has a machine gun which she uses, the detectives fight back using their handguns. Nick is quite unpleasant to David some of the time and the Lieutenant is an absolute stereotype of the shouting man in charge, whenever they are in the police station. There is a slightly innovative chase on foot in the airport.

A View: This film was not liked much by anybody, and unusually for a Clint Eastwood offering it lost money. It may have been that the villains were not really villainous enough and the action was just too stereotypical despite the fact that the film held a record for the ratio of stunt people to actors. So in reality life is possibly too short for us to follow everything Eastwood, but you could probably have this on while doing something else, but don’t spend money on it.

Clint Eastwood has played a detective less often than you might think but here are three other outings the first Dirty Harry, then The Gauntlet and City Heat.