Bad Movie Night: D'Curse


2013 cop movie

Bad Movie Rating: 4/5 (Josh: 4/5; Jeremy: fell asleep; Fred: 2/5; Lisa: 4/5; J.D.: 3/5)

Rating: 4/20

Plot: A bunch of shady cops deal with a voodoo curse put on them after a series of bad deeds.

Here's a drinking game that could kill you: drink a shot every time you see a flag in this movie.

Somebody on Reddit described writer/director Alex Maisonette as "the Neil Breen of bad cop movies," and that was enough to peak my interest. And Maisonette's earnest approach to this drama, his attempts to tie in something mystical or spiritual, and the awkwardness with his efforts to chime in on the timely issue of cop killings make that comparison an appropriate one. Although let's face it--there isn't another Neil Breen and never will be. Like Breen, he put himself in his own movie, but his acting is far from the worst thing about this. The camera work, the Kinkos-aided set design so that we can know when the characters are in a police station, the nearly incomprehensible disjointed narrative, the bad acting from the rest of the cast, the special effects, the questionable logic, the failed artsy-fartsiness. Those are the main problems with this.

Most of the cop cast were entertainingly bad, but there were two standouts. First was Michael Wright who played Officer Ruda, the guy who was a cop by day and a voodoo guy by night. A scene where he uses an egg on another officer has a chance to be my favorite movie scene of the year. Rocky Passafaro is also really good as Sergeant Rocko. I'm not even sure he knew he was in a movie a lot of the time.

This also might have my favorite death scene in which a cop is electrocuted while trying to change a light bulb. You can accuse me of spoiling this one, but if you watch the trailer for D'Curse (that means "The Curse," by the way), that also spoils it. Plus, you probably won't ever see this. If you want to, it's available on Amazon Prime, however.

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