C. Thomas Howell plays a combustible, trigger-happy, Los Angeles cop in the "Lethal Weapon" mode in Joseph Merhi's formulaic but above-average crime thriller "The Sweeper" with Ed Lauter. Merhi's fast-moving, 101-minute epic evokes memories of the "Dirty Harry" sequel "Magnum Force." In other words, when the legal system fails to serve the public, a secret organization called Justice Incorporated steps in to resolve the situation with extreme prejudice. The action opens with an exciting prologue that traces our protagonist's back story. Mark Goddard's father was a police sergeant (Jeff Fahkey), and he was a good cop until a hit squad strike at his home and killed him. One of the killers terrorizes Mark rather than kill him. Indeed, the assailant thrusts a revolver into Mark's hands and urges him to shoot him in the head, but Mark cannot bring himself to commit murder. Years later, our hero works for the LAPD like his dad. The mystery about who killed his parents haunts our hero's every waking minute. Goddard's team has been getting sloppy. One of them is stabbed by a suspect who preys on ATM users. Our fearless but pugnacious hero chases the knife-wielding maniac atop a high building where they battle it out. Eventually, Mark loops a length of cable around the assailant's neck and plunges with him into the air some twenty feet or more above the ground. Of course, the guy dies by strangulation. Later, when he arrests a child pornographer, Mark loses his cool when the suspect gives him the benefit of his smart lip, and a public brawl ensues. Mark is the bane of the force and his boss alerts Internal Affairs about him because he is fed up with Mark. The action scenes are competently done, and the performances are strong, with C. Thomas Howell showing his tougher side. One of the best scenes has our hero pursuing an assailant down the highway with the villain knocking huge metal chemical bottles off a flatbed truck and shooting slugs in them so they explode in front of our tenacious hero as he swerves behind him. Our hero manages to field one bottle on the hood of his car, smash the villain from the behind so that the bottle bounces through the back window of his car, and then he shoots the bottle and blows the bad guy to kingdom come!
Review of The Sweeper
