Film Review: ‘Crown Vic’

Definitely the more sober-sided of two new films involving cops and cop-killers, “Crown Vic” juggles slice-of-life observation and thriller elements as a grizzled Lapd veteran shepherds a newbie through his first patrol shift.

Writer-director Joel Souza’s “Crown Vic” doesn’t always balance those elements ideally, but it’s still a respectable if non-revelatory cruise through a familiar terrain of mean streets and men in blue.Transformed by a darkened crew cut and ’stache, with a crankypants working-stiff voice, Thomas Jane is almost unrecognizable as longtime peace officer Ray Mandel.

He’s in an irritable mood even before meeting trainee Nick Holland, who’s just transferred from an off-street post in Oakland to commence his maiden tour in a squad car three years after police-academy graduation.

Nick is from a family of cops, and seems to feel he’s got a lot to prove.

Yet he’s taken aback by Ray’s cynical,

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