Too much of everything

Fresh and Exciting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

So Eddie Murphy wanted to make a more serious cop film this time around, after producing a string of comedies, well, he should've just stuck to making more of those comedies..., I personally don't believe serious acting is for him; throughout the film I wanted to laugh, even though the film wasn't funny, was it simply Eddie Murphy's presence that made me react that way?On ground level, "Metro" wasn't all that bad, just a load of clichés bundled together to create a movie I had seen many times before, only under a different title and with different actors.The film's beginning is just a way to build Murphy up for the inevitable cop chases baddie plot..., so yeah at the start it's all about showing what a 'bad-ass' negotiator Scott Roper (Murphy) is and setting the back story revolving around his relationship with his girlfriend up.Then "Metro" really begins, Roper foils a bank robbery and relentlessly pursues the bank's robber, eventually apprehending the culprit and getting him hauled off to prison, it's over right?Nope!The bank robber wants vengeance and sets out after Roper's girlfriend, resulting in the last half hour of the movie. It was enjoyable I must admit but definitely wasn't anything special..., the only thing that excited me was seeing Eddie Murphy in something other than a comedy or family film.Watch if you must but you're not missing anything if you don't.

The 80's and 90's saw the momentous rise of beloved funnyman Eddie Murphy within the action comedy genre, particularly the wise cracking cop niche. 48 Hrs kicked it off, the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy added to the snowball effect, and so it went. His manic charisma led to many a starring role, including the somewhat forgotten actioner Metro, one thats notable because it shows the actor in just as many serious situations as comedic ones. There's a tether on his sense of humour here, which in other films has been set to roam and end up where it may, often halting entire scenes for his non stop antics to play out. Here he gets a few moments like that, but even more to get seriously angry and tough, most likely helped by the fact that he's up against one of the most truly heinous villains he's ever had to face. Here he's Scott Roper, a fast talking, resourceful San Francisco hostage negotiator who flexes both brain and brawn in a tense opening confrontation with a loose-screw criminal (Donal Logue). We see right off the bat what an efficient dude he is, a nice precursor for the trying times ahead. He's inhabits a world chock full of every necessary genre element: a cranky police captain (Denis Arndt), a sexy girlfriend (stunning British gal Carmen Ejogo), a fresh out of the academy rookie partner (Michael Rapaport, not given much to do) a recently deceased former partner (Art Evans) to avenge, slain by the obligatory arch criminal, in this case psychotic jewel thief Michael Korda (Michael Wincott). Wincott makes Korda a truly detestable guy. Vile, slithery and absent of any shred of remorse, killing his way through the city with Roper hot on his tail. And there you have it, every necessary element in place for a solid cop flick, and one that's gotten very little attention over the years. There's neat action set pieces including a showstopper set aboard a speeding trolley car, endearing bits of comedy now and then from Murphy and some savage violence that proclaims the film's hard R rating proudly. Murphy and Wincott have a sizzling verbal dual, separated by prison glass that launches the scene into the stratosphere of intense profanity, with F bombs spewed off in rapid fire, tempers and talents of both actors in overdrive. Lukewarm reviews can be found all over for this one. Yeah its no 48 Hrs, but it earns it's stripes and to me is one of Murphy's very best, helped along quite a bit by Wincott's snarling, evil presence. Great fun.

In Metro Murphy plays a streetwise police negotiator in San Fransisco named Scott Roper, in fact the best negotiator on the force. Roper's track record in getting hostages out alive is the envy of his colleagues and allows him leeway with his superiors. Unfortunately the stress of the job meant that Roper became introverted and shut out everything around him, including his girlfriend Ronnie who ultimately left him when he started gambling heavily as an outlet.Enter new partner Kevin McCall (Michael Rappaport), a young rookie straight from training who despite being highly skilled is raw and un-streetwise – if that were a word.Metro has two good scenes and one decent character. The two good scenes are a long chase that takes place on the San Fransisco streets and uses their tram system to full advantage, the second such scene is a training montage that lasts maybe two minutes and allows Murphy the freedom to go a little wild by creating a made up criminal for McCall to negotiate with.The decent character I haven't touched on yet, but given that the film is about a hostage negotiator it seems fairly obvious that there need be someone for Roper to test his skills on.That someone is Michael Korda (Michael Wincott), a man with dark sunken eyes, the emaciated appearance of the undernourished and the gravelly voice of a chain smoker. His hard as nails, emotionless performance as a potentially insane, definitely dangerous Korda is thankfully lacking in hamminess or over-acting, but overflowing with menace and intensity. It is not the end of the world that the bad guy in a film is by far the best thing in it, but in an action comedy with not enough of either, where the bad guy in reality is the third or fourth banana it simply isn't good enough.The strength of Korda's characterisation and a fairly brutal development results in some genuine animosity between the pair, which makes the inevitable stand off near the end somewhat more bearable, even if it is laced with logic flaws and some mediocre action sequences.Ultimately Metro ended up only marginally better than A Vampire in Brooklyn, by trying to play against the 'typical' Eddie Murphy movie they managed to create a film only marginally different, but one lacking enough of anything to make it worthwhile.Final Rating – 5 / 10. The perception of intensity, the illusion of humour and the delusion of adequacy. Eddie Murphy takes a stab at semi-serious and fails. I don't hate Metro, but aside from a cool villain there is nothing to love.

Eddie Murphy tries to act serious as well as funny as Detective Scott Roper, and he actually carries it off rather well. Wanting revenge for his partner's death, he's led on a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with Michael Wincott, who will not let him win easily...The main highlights of Metro are a thrilling car chase sequence and the explosive ending! This is not the best film I have ever seen, but Wincott is immensely good as criminal Korda, displaying an almost never-ending desire to bring Roper down, even if it means double murder....Metro is a fast-paced thrilling (and funny) movie from start to finish containing many startling and cunning plots that may seem a little odd at first but smoothing out to a satisfactory conclusion. I can definitely understand why it was a huge success at the box-office: it is very enjoyable!