Like filipe furtado pointed out, this does feel very similar to the best of the hk crime films, focused on an ultimate dilemma, the central characters caught up in crime, and focusing on how they get out of it, four cops and the three that are left when one of them dies, forced to go rogue and on the run, another film about fighting outside of the law despite being hired to work within it, a great case in excellent craftsmanship coming in the mid-budget tier zone, and focusing on essential build-up, a slow, methodical film that starts out as an essential drama, where our characters' family lives are detailed and then destroyed before our eyes, which then comes up with a ton of money, and what to do with it, the screenplay co-written by miami blues director george armitrage explores this psyche of the cops, not the cops who barely give a you-know-what and just wait for their pension, the cops who fight tooth and nail because they have a family back home to protect, if they don't stop these drug runners, what is to stop these drug runners from getting drugs all the way to their kids, it is extremely violent as well, but because mackenzie worked a lot on street crime films and understated dramas, the violence here is quick and never carthartic, a helicopter explodes but at what cost? And how much death until you can finally celebrate a meaningless victory? Not an action film as detailed, but a surprisingly richly observed drama in many contexts, melancholy, and the proper character work makes this feel genuine and richly told, very few hollywood films feel as if they embody real life, but this one embodies the middleground of real world corruption and the genuine human drama that lingers through.
