6 OF THE BEST
Team Empireon the month’s essential movies
PICK OF THE MONTH
COPSHOP
OUT DECEMBER 27 / CERT 15 / 107 MINS
Gerard Butler is on the kind of B-movie roll that The Stath would likely roundhouse-kick someone in the head for. He follows up the excellent likes of Den Of Thieves and Greenland with a devilish turn in Joe Carnahan’s thriller, playing a hitman who secretes himself inside a police-station prison to bump off Frank Grillo’s sleazy scumbag. Problem is, an even worse assassin (played with comedic menace by Toby Huss) and do-gooder cop (Alexis Louder) are in his way. It’s an intriguing set-up, which for the most part it makes good on, the interplay between Grillo and Butler generating laughs and tension as they cross, double-cross and triple-cross each other. The finale is ridiculous, but it’s largely enormously arresting.