Christian Slater plays a lazy layabout who inherits a police precinct (!) in this unlikely yet likable comedy co-starring Tony Goldwyn. The premise is apparently based on fact with actual ancient San Francisco laws allowing private citizens to set up their own security patrols, however, the filmmakers are (sadly) less interested in this and more keen on fish-out-of-water elements as Slater gets up everyone's back when trying to run the precinct his own way. Further plot complications come with Slater also trying to track down his brother's murderer and if there is one key thing to hold against the film, it is the wild changes in tone as it alters between revenge thriller and bubbly comedy. Never to mind, Slater is in such good form that he carries the film through its rough patches. Taking a note from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', Slater sporadically breaks the fourth wall, humorously conversing with us. First time director Bruce A. Evans also has a number of other effective touches up his sleeve, like subtitles to indicate Slater's muffled speech when gagged and funny jump cuts as Slater knocks on several doors in a single street. Harold Faltermeyer additionally provides an appropriately upbeat score, even if the echoes of his 'Beverly Hills Cop' composition are too pronounced for their own good. The antagonists are not particularly charismatic or well written, but as alluded to this is Slater's film first and foremost and he runs with the material very well, rendering his somewhat arrogant character sympathetic as he learns the meaning of responsibility in life for the first time.
