The Rookie (1990)

Eastwood should try his hardest to make this one disappear. There was nothing good about this movie at all. Nothing worked. Poor direction, no chemistry between him and Sheen, and just plain blah!!!!!! Clint made a poor choice by being involved in this one. The action sequences were not enjoyable and the rape scene was just plain stupid!! I sometimes wonder if actors recognize a dog prior to the release. I am sure this one was doomed from the start. I cannot see how this one made any money at the box office at all. If it did I am sure it was because of the names involved. I would not waste the time or money on this one. Clint has always been my favorite and everyone is entitled to one bad movie. This one fits the bill. If you rent The Rookie make sure it's the baseball movie with Dennis Quaid!!!!!!

Fmovies: There is simply no excuse for how bad this movie is. It would have to rate as one of the worst of all time. It is so bad, in fact, it is almost - but not - laughable. The fact that it has a relatively accomplished cast makes this all the more diappointing. Raul Julia as a German! That's just the start. Clint Eastwood's grip on police reality is completely gone here, and Charlie Sheen is just way out of his depth as a tormented rookie cop. Plus a sex interest that ain't sexy and you wind up with 0. Which is almost what I gave this film. Whatever you do, DO NOT put yourself through the torture of watching this movie - I was begging for the end after 20 mins!

What the heck are these people who are putting this movie down talkin about? This movie is a lot of fun, not super original, but still a lot of fun. Its a typical cop buddy movie but still a WELL MADE cop buddy movie. The scene where Charlie Sheen beats the crap out of an entire bar full of scuzball bikers is great! "C'mon, mutherf'ers! C'mon, mutherf'ers! C'mon!" Charlie keeps screaming this like a madman while he beats the bejeezus outta the bikers, and it rocks. Clint Eastwood directed some of his best action scenes in this flick as well. Anyone who likes a good old fashioned Hollywood popcorn roller coaster ride movie with plenty of snappy one liners will definitely dig this underrated gem!

The Rookie fmovies. "The Rookie" takes me back to the early 90s when thrillers and action pictures were all set aside for Sunday night, and from time to time, I was allowed to enjoy the movie with my Dad. Give me a few seconds to embrace the nostalgia...

And I remember when I saw good old Clint Eastwood in his car, watching carjackers loading a whole semi-trailer with their recent (and valuable) "purchases", I had but one certitude in mind: his partner would better have a last puff on his buddy's cigars because he'd soon become another "dead on duty" statistic. He wasn't a few days from retirement but he was old, he was Black and well, as Roger Ebert pointed out, the film's title doesn't make you expect a "dazzling work of originality". But I didn't know Ebert at that time, only my classics.

So naturally, the man was shot from behind by the grand theft mastermind, a German (!?) mustached villain played by the late Raul Julia. Of course, it made the matter more personal for Nick Puvloski, a fine and shameless ersatz of Dirty Harry. Did I groan for such a lack of originality from the start? Well, I guess I just enjoyed the chase across the expressway and I knew the film would provide the shot of adrenalin we all expected for a Sunday Night. Of course, Nick doesn't get the villain, but he makes him lose the precious loot, creating another 'personal' grudge on the other side... and the next day, he's assigned a new partner, a young detective named David Ackerman.

The set-up was predictable and the rest of the story was swimming in familiar waters: a tense relationship between the old street-smart cop and the sensitive rookie played by Charlie Sheen, bargains with snitches, television kicked by the bad guy, the sexy villainess, and the spectacular stunts. I didn't see the film for years but my memory wasn't blurry at all, I still had enough scenes stuck in my mind to have it filed in the "memorable films" compartment. I remember Sonia Braga shooting David in the back with that "amateur" line (the ad made me expect he would die for real), I remember David again, getting smoke on his face from a condescending bartender and a few scenes later, returning the favor back with a slightly disproportionate retribution, the spectacularly explosive stunt, natch... and I also liked the final touch at the end with the initial scene being Xeroxed almost line from line.

So when the film ended, we knew it wasn't a masterpiece but we didn't care, we had our share of fun and I gladly saw the re-run a few days later. I was aware of Clint Eastwood's reputation of course and I enjoyed his presence and his interactions with Sheen, but it was long before I became a movie buff, more familiar with his best work and capable to discern between such movies as "The Rookie" and other more valuable achievements. A few years after, on another Sunday night, "A Perfect World" was aired and I was capable to realize that this film played in another league. And we can say in totally objective terms that "The Rookie" doesn't reinvent the wheel, doesn't recreate the same chemistry that made the "Lethal Weapon" series and that it's one of Eastwood's lesser films... but even with that regard, the flaws are still enjoyable to say the least. Don't they call that a guilty pleasure?

I think it says it all. Watching it again, I knew I was supposed to cringe many times. I was surpris

I was shocked when I looked at the reviews for "The Rookie". It sounded like a decent cop film...but oh my goodness did it suck...and after more than 20,000 reviews on IMDb I cannot recall saying that a movie sucked before...but this one sure did!

The first half of the film isn't bad. In many ways it's like a Dirty Harry Film. Sure, he's in Los Angeles instead of San Francisco and is working grand theft auto duty instead of homicide but otherwise it feels like a Dirty Harry film...especially when Pulovski (Clint Eastwood) has his partner killed early in the story. Pulovski vows to destroy the man behind this...a nasy guy played by Raoul Julia. But to do so, he's stuck breaking in Ackerman (Charlie Sheen)...a rookie.

Up until Pulovski gets kidnapped, the story wasn't bad at all. Then, I can only assume the studio hired chimps to finish writing the story. Instead of making any sense at all, the story simply degraded to a juvenile story with a bazillion dollars spent on special effects and explosions. Here are just a few of the incredibly inane and awful moments that made by head ache:

Ackerman is shot from about three feet away with what looks like a .357 Magnum handgun. He's shaken up but just fine because he's wearing a bullet-proof vest!! His ribs should have been shattered and there should have been internal bleeding...if he was lucky!

Ackerman goes into a bar with about 60 nasty gang members and proceeds to beat them up en masse. Then, he lights the place on fire. There never are any repercussions for this and by the end of the movie, Ackerman is STILL on the police force.

Pulovski is handcuffed into a chair and so the psychotic killer lady decides this is the perfect time to have sex with him. Mmmm...yeah.

Ackerman realizes his wife is in the house and in danger. So, he just drives his motorcycle THROUGH the door and he and the cycle seem just fine!

After Ackerman rescues Pulovski, they drive a Mercedes through the warehouse and out a window from what looks like the 3rd or 4th floor...and are just fine when they land!

I could go on and on...but you have the general idea. Tons of stupid and impossible stunts and everything works out just find by the end of the film. Overall, a brain-numbingly bad film...perhaps the worst of Eastwood's career.

This movie is a very standard cop buddy action film. A veteran cop is assigned to work with a rookie cop to catch a crook who killed the vet's old partner. This is so standard of action film's but that doesnt matter, its still good mindless fun. I though the action was good in this film, especially the opening car chase, and I thought Eastwood gave s good performance and was even funny at times. I am not a big Charlie Sheen fan but I thought he was ok in this one, and Raul Julia was solid as the bad guy. 3.5/5. Recommended, even though its like so many action film's its very enjoyable.