Eddie Murphy played quite a lot law enforcement officers in his career, but those characters weren't remembered for their physique or their shooting, driving and fighting abilities. Eddie Murphy's most effective police films were those in which his character used his mouth. This quality was recognised by the producers of Metro, 1997 action thriller directed by Thomas Carter.
In this film Murphy plays Inspector Scott Roper, one of the most valuable assets of San Francisco Police Department. Roper's ability to talk his way in and out of most difficult situations turned him into most effective hostage negotiator. Roper, however, has some private problems - gambling addiction and break-up with girlfriend Ronnie Tate (played by Carmen Ejogo). Another source of frustration is his superiors' decision to partner him with young and inexperienced Kevin McCall (played by Michael Rappaport). Two men are, however, forced to settle their differences when Roper crosses path with Michael Korda (played by Michael Wincott), intelligent, psychopathic and homicidal jewel thief.
At first glance, Randy Feldman's script for Metro seems to be nothing more than collection of police film cliches. Some of them are missing, and that seems refreshing. On the other hand, director Thomas Carter, who used to work mainly on television, fails to bring anything particularly new to the series of action scenes this film was destined to have - they are impressive more due to San Francisco locations than due to being particularly original. The acting in the film is of standard quality - Rappaport, Wincot and Ejogo are here to play one-dimensional cliched characters, and they do it without much ambition. The only exception is, of course, Murphy; just like in many similar situations, he alone is able to make otherwise unwatchable film into two hours of quality entertainment. Metro wouldn't enter film school textbooks, but it serves its purpose, which is something many Hollywood films fail to do.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on December 29th 2003)
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