Flashfire (1994)
3/10
The epitome of a non-thriller
5 May 2003
This movie seemed like it cobbled together the least exciting parts from previous made-for-TV cop movies. The plot is stereotypical, much like everything else: cop's partner gets killed, cop gets involved with the sole witness (naturally a beautiful female prostitute), cop has family problems, cop uncovers corruption within his own police department, etc. etc.

Normally, this kind of plot is often used in b-movies, but usually there is some attempt to inject a certain level of excitement. Here we get a Z-grade DTV flick which simply goes through the motions. Naturally, there is a sex scene between the cop and prostitute, and also some in-family disagreements regarding what he should do with his life. Both of these are included simply to pad out this lethargic non-thriller to a mandoratory running length of 90 minutes. When not boring us with pointless subplots, every cliche in the book is used and the dull screenplay generates the impression the writer penned it all in one evening. Such contrivances include the prostitute going to her best friend's house (she is so obviously a future victim the moment she appears in the film), the bad guy who arranges a meeting with the cop in order to spill the beans on his superiors (evidently another corpse-in-waiting), the cop contacting the person he mosts trusts on the police force once he figures out what's going on (yep, you've guessed it: his buddy is in league with the bad guys). And so on. Believe me, this stuff is even more boring to watch than reading this summary.

There's also an attempt to suggest the femme fatale might be involved in the conspiracy somehow (which would be ridiculous since the bad guys tried to kill her on several occasions). However, the movie isn't smart enough to pull any twists and basically settles for a dull shoot-out between the goodies and baddies, during which a grand total of two shots are fired (truly riveting stuff). Then this pitiful excuse for a thriller abruptly ends.

Eccentric Brit rates it 3/10
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