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Downtown (1990) More at IMDbPro »

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Better than expected, funny, some good car chases, 11 March 2007

Author: nath_j_h from England

Downtown wouldn't have been a personal choice but i was lent it with some other movies so I watched it. I understood that Forest Whitaker was in downtown (actor of recent film The Last King Of Scotland) The film turned out to be quite reasonable, co-star Anthony Edwards was actually quite funny at times making the film that little bit better, and not forgetting the soundtracks that make a good film.

The film included shooting scenes, car chase scenes, and a bit of comedy splashed in for good measure.Forest Whitaker played a fairly good part and is a decent actor, the problem with films these day is that 90% of them are swarming with new/fresh from drama school teens, we need to hang on to our good actors.

overall, a good cop flick worth the 90 min. - 7/10

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
I can't believe there is only 6 comments on this movie, 17 June 2007
Author: 2kilo7 from Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It is hard to believe there is only 6 comments on this movie. This is a great buddy cop movie, easily one of the better ones you will see. Both Forest Whitaker and Anthony Edwards are fine actors in anything they have been in and this movie is no exception. The action starts right away and is very steady throughout the movie. There is a lot of good comedy in this movie as well, slightly cheesy but no worse then most other movies. Forest Whitaker finally received significant recognition for his acting ability for The Last King Of Scotland, it is about time! His fine performances in movies like Phonebooth, Phenomenon, Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam and countless other roles he has played over the years have been overlooked for far too long! The chemistry between Whitaker and Edwards is very good there are a few very funny moments between them. If you like cop movies take a look you should not regret it and if you do it is like I always say you never have to watch it again.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Fun buddy cop movie., 31 July 2005

Author: roddick-1 from New Zealand

I had been eying this movie for a while in cheap DVD bins but didn't think I would risk spending all the money I had in my pocket at the time on it. Luckily I found it at a video library so decided to check it out.

Forest Whitaker did a good job acting in this one. He's a skilled actor. He's been in a lot of movies I've seen but I didn't know it was him at the time because he wasn't one of the main characters so I couldn't pick him in the credits.

It is a good blend of action and comedy. There are some exciting chase scenes and good jokes.

Overall I thought it probably isn't worth all the money I had in my pocket at the time but is still worth a rent. It is a good buddy cop movie, any fans of the Lethal Weapon series will probably find this enjoyable.

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Tim the Bus Driver, 18 July 2007
Author: granthewitt65 from United Kingdom

I'm just watching this movie and I think it's great. One question, Kearney greets the bus driver on his commute "Downtown" as "Tim." I only caught a brief glimpse, but I think the driver is played by Tim Roth. Can anyone confirm?

Anthony Edward's performance, in my opinion, is very much like Judge Reinhold in Beverley Hills Cop. In fact I think the whole movie has a Beverley Hills Cop feel to it, albeit without the knockout performance of Eddie Murphy. Forest Whitaker is good in this movie, as usual a very skilled performance,and I wish his character was given a little more emphasis and depth.

All in all a great movie and a credit to the Buddy Cop genre.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A f*ck-up. Another goddamn, four-star, class-A f*ck-up!, 1 June 2007

Author: lastliberal from Florida

OK, so it's not Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, but this cop movie deserves a look.

It's not really a cop movie. Yes, the scumbags are dealing dope and killing cops, but this is about a black cop that lost his partner (Forest Whitaker) and a fish out of water - a white cop in the worst precinct in the inner city (Anthony Edwards). One is afraid of losing another partner, and the other just wants to learn how to do real police work.

It's funny, it's tender, it's sickly sweet at times, but it is really a good story about relationships; not only between cop partners, but between the wives and their husbands.

Give it a chance.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A lost Action-Buddy movie, 20 March 2002
Author: Spider-Lou from Bristol, CT

When I first saw the commercials for this movie they looked pretty good. So I actually saw Downtown in the theaters, and damn it, this movie was really entertaining!

Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker are unlikely police partners investigating a murder case. Edwards is a fish out of water as he is transferred to an inner city precinct and the wackiness ensues. "Downtown" is a brutally violent, action-comedy/drama, but with a smaller budget than it's predecessors. Whitaker and Edwards do some very good acting. They also pair well, despite the fact that their characters are adversarial. Joe Pantoliano provides us a really creepy villain, who gets a most unique villain death. (Come on, don't sulk! Everyone knows the bad guy gets it in the end!)

Listen up, if you happen to catch this movie at 2:AM on channel 7, you won't see Gibson/Glover at their best, but you will see an excellent substitute.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Hack Writer Alert, 17 August 2008

Author: aimless-46 from Kentucky

"Downtown" is a box office crash & burn from 1990. Basically it is yet another unsuccessful attempt to follow-up on the success of "Beverly Hills Cop" (without the benefit of Eddie Murphy). These inter-racial, buddy picture, cop movie, comedy-action features simply don't work without a talented comic and Anthony Edwards of "Revenge of the Nerds" fame is only mildly funny. Add to this a more serious group of themes than Murphy had to deal with and the incongruity of mixing these conflicting genres makes the whole a lot less than the sum of its parts.

Yet "Downtown" is more entertaining than its "bomb at the box office" reputation would lead you to believe. The production design, filming, and editing are first class. Although the action scenes are unconvincing, this is due more to lamely inserted comedy elements than cheap staging.

Much is genuinely embarrassing such as when a PCP abuser holds a little girl hostage, with a gun to her head, and the subtext lamely plays the scene for laughs. What genius thought that scene would work? And they wonder why these things lose money? In this exercise in schizoid film-making, Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker are the standard odd couple partnering up to solve the murder of Edwards' former partner. Nerd boy Alex (Edwards) in his worst scenes listens to Beach Boys music and in his best scenes is paired with his girlfriend (Penelope Ann Miller).

Alex is a suburban patrolman who has been banished to the worst downtown Philly division because of a confrontation with a slimy bigwig (unconvincingly overplayed by David Clennon). Dennis (Whitaker) is a detective with a lot of baggage that makes it difficult for him to warm up to Alex.

But Alex and Dennis eventually bond (big surprise) and Whitaker turns in a pretty good performance (much too good for this material). Whitaker and Miller assist the marginally talented but generally likable Edwards enough that it is possible for the average viewer to suspend disbelief most of the time and actually get into the story. Just be prepared for a lot of extremely lame moments that would have been more entertaining had the editor relegated them to his deleted scenes bin.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

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1 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A well-done 80's Comedy with the swing of great action, 30 October 2002

Author: Radon13 (Radon13@gmx.ch) from Marburg,Germany

Here is another of my personal favourites 80's comedies. A solid production with a marvellous Anthony Edwards and a bad-ass Forest Whitaker. Lots of the scenes have an unique Choreography.

A good surprise for 80's fans!!

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3 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Forget Lethal Weapon!!!, 8 May 1999
Author: Fenster-7 from Florida

I really enjoyed this film. It was a perfect cop/buddy movie. The story is cool and it has a lot of comedy for an action film, but not too much. If you are a fan of Lethal Weapon or Bad Boys, then this is for you!

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