The best thing about Downtown, Richard Benjamin's 1990 cop buddy film, is seeing what a very young Forest Whitaker and Anthony Edwards looked like before they became big stars. Aside from that, Downtown represents a very uneasy mix of comedy and more serious drama which ultimately doesn't work at all.

Edwards plays inexperienced white suburban cop Alex Kearney who gets into trouble after attempting to ticket a corrupt businessman who has connections to city government and is promptly transferred to a downtown inner-city precinct. Immediately we realize that this story cannot be taken seriously when there is a ridiculous shootout between cops and drug dealers inside the police precinct.

To add insult to injury, there is also a very unsavory additional scene inside the precinct where a drug addict/religious fanatic holds a little girl hostage by placing a gun to her head and is disarmed when Alex pretends he's God using the department's PA system.

Some might argue that the depiction of the inner city police precinct in this film is racist since all the police officers there are black-Alex is the only white cop in the office (since when were police precincts in Los Angeles completely segregated as of 1990?). But the point is also made that the downtown officers are not only way more experienced than their white suburban counterparts but they also know how to expertly handle real crime every day.

Alex ends up being partnered up with the much more experienced black cop, Dennis Curren (Whitaker). The relationship between the two officers fits the cop buddy formula, with Dennis constantly annoyed with his inept partner.

At a certain point early on Alex's buddy from the suburban force is killed by a psychopathic criminal by having his throat slit. What happened to the comedy here? The mixture takes the form of bad guy machinations coupled with a series of goofy good guy cop slapstick.

Finally Alex finds his mojo and along with Dennis's supervisor take the bad guys down, consisting of the aforementioned corrupt businessman, the psychopath and a police precinct commander. Where is Dennis in all this? He is hospitalized after being shot in the face by the psychopath and does not participate in the predictable climax.

Penelope Ann Miller as a completely forgettable role as Lori, Alex's love interest. Whitaker does well as the more experienced cop but Edwards's role is way too goofy to be taken seriously. This is one hell of a forgettable flick which should be avoided at all costs.

Police Officer Alex Kearney is a keen by the book cop who's happy with his beat in a nice part of Philadelphia. Unfortunately his adherence to the rules lands him in trouble with his chiefs after he tries to arrest an important businessman who has long standing police connections. When his side of the story is not believed, he is given the choice of suspension or a transfer to downtown. Choosing the transfer, Kearney isn't quite prepared for just how dangerous and crime filled downtown actually is. Worse still, his new tough no nonsense partner positively hates him!

It's churlish to suggest that Downtown is merely a cash in of the buddy buddy inter racial cop movies, that, as we know, were made viable entertainment fare by the likes of Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop. Starring Forest Whitaker (Dennis Curren) and Anthony Edwards (Alex Kearney),Downtown is as much about a fish out of water scenario than it is polar opposite cops working together. With both things dovetailing together to create an engaging actioner that's worth the time of those who are stuck for something light to watch.

Suffering a touch in the last finale due to an inevitable mawkish character strand, some minor irks stop this from reaching greater heights, chiefly that David Clennon's barely grumpy villain is just not strong enough for some dramatic heft. However, there's some genuinely funny scenes between Edwards and Whitaker, the action set-pieces are well staged and thus Downtown gets most of the genre's requisites right. Nice support comes from Joe Pantoliano as a bizarre looking hit-man and Penelope Ann Miller as Kearney's fraught girlfriend, Lori Mitchell. 6.5/10

I am currently under "shelter-in-place" orders due to COVID19, so you can imagine the very few activities that can be done. Normally, I would go to the gym, or the movies, or bowling, or numerous other activities that I like to do, but now all of those businesses are shuttered. So, now I'm left with my friends Netflix, Amazon Prime, Xfinity, and their sisters plus books. I am not a gamer so that's out.

I decided to torture myself with this movie mainly because I remember watching it as a kid and I remember it being better. A Philadelphia police officer named Alex Kearney (Anthony Edwards) got himself transferred to the Diamond Street District precinct of Philadelphia after he attempted to issue a speeding ticket to a well-known rich guy. Once he got to the downtown police station we got to see all of the stereotypes that go along with inner city/urban/downtown life: plenty of black faces and plenty of crime complete with the new guy getting his car stripped right in front of the police station.

His reluctant partner, sergeant Dennis Curren (Forest Whitaker),was your typical angry Black man. In this case he wasn't angry at the world because the system has been oppressing him, he was angry because of his fear that if he got another partner he would lose that partner and he couldn't handle that. Along with angry-Black-partner was equally angry and boisterous Black captain. He was a walking cliché--shouting out swear words left and right and constantly demeaning and degrading the new kid on the block.

The two partners from opposite sides of the tracks eventually learned to get along so that they could solve the crime of who killed Kearney's partner.

When the movie was comedic it was bearable, when they went serious and dramatic it was unbearable. It's hard to take things seriously when you establish yourself as a comedy then switch things up midstream. It would alternate between these ridiculous scenarios and these serious heart-to-hearts. It is really too bad that the poor dialogue and identity confusion got in the way because the crime mystery aspect of the movie was actually pretty good. If "Downtown'' could have abandoned the overplayed stereotypes and ironed out it's identity issues--meaning deciding that it's going to be either a comedy or drama--I think it had a chance of actually being something worthwhile.