Cop movies of the 1980s, ranked by the number of laws they break

An incredibly unpleasant movie Clint Eastwood– directed Bounce begins with the gang-rape of a woman (played by Eastwood’s real-life lover, Sondra Locke), and gets even scarier from there. To your credit (?), Bounce trying to reconcile the tension between Callahan’s extreme methods and the fact that he gets results. But given the heinousness of the central crime, Bounce remains at Callahan’s side, convinced that the law must be broken to stop the terminally ill.

5. Code of Silence (1985)

As we’ll see again shortly, director Andrew Davies has made a name for himself by getting great performances from action figures with no charisma. in Code of silencehe uses this trick Chuck Norrisa man whose martial arts skills impressed Bruce Lee, but whose acting skills failed to impress anyone. Davis gets a lot of help Code of silence filling the film with an excellent supporting cast including Dennis Farina, Henry Silva and Ron Dean.

But while the cast helps to apportion responsibility, it also makes the Chicago Police Department very corrupt indeed. In which, to my credit, there is a certain essence Code of silence. By Michael Butler, Dennis Shryak, and Mike Gray, Code of silence tells the story of a Chicago gang war that erupts after a corrupt cop kills an innocent. The resulting turmoil forces the officers to decide whether to stand for the law or the badge, and while Norris’ Eddie Cusack is fighting for the former, many others are not.

4. Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

“It just got cancelled,” scoffs Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover), before he kills corrupt South African official Arjen Rudd (Jos Ackland), who has just invoked diplomatic immunity. It is hard to see how an elderly sergeant has the right to strip any diplomat of his immunity, even if that diplomat is an Afrikaner extolling the virtues of apartheid in South Africa and the sergeant is black. But then Murtaugh and his partner Riggs (Mel Gibson) have already done their share of questionable activity in the former Lethal weapon since 1987, dir Richard Donner.

Donner returns continuationbut while original screenwriter Shane Black has story credits, along with Warren Murphy, Jeffrey Boam gets the sole script on this sequel. With this lineup of names, it’s hard to know who exactly deserves the blame for pushing Murtaugh over the edge instead of getting him to keep Riggs in check. When Murtaugh gets too old to be smart, Lethal weapon falls out of joint, and both cops resort to all kinds of illegal behavior to destroy their ignominious careers in a third-act bloodbath.

3. Above the Law (1988)

Unless they think of his infamous direct-to-video shooting streak or his support of dictators like Vladimir Putin, anyone who hears the name Steven Seagal thinks about 1992 Under siege. And not without reasons. Seagal may be the world’s least convincing action star, but Under siege rules, thanks to a real star Tommy Lee Jones and directed by Andrew Davies. Earlier Under siegeDavis got a good game from Segal earlier Above the Law.