Randy Feldman, who worked as the writer and producer on this movie, has four theatrical releases on his belt, the other three being the painfully bad horror flick 'Hell Night', the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle 'Nowhere to Run' (which I have not seen but can only assume it's as bad as any other of Van Damme film) and the eighties cop flick 'Tango & Cash', which received some audience acclaim. To state 'Metro' is by far his most memorable attempt at a screenplay isn't really a compliment, it seems he always kept the 'screenplay writing for dummies' book by hand during his writing sessions.
We have the typical hero-cop; underpaid, under-appreciated by his boss, personal problems galore,financial troubles to boost, a smirking sense of humor, and of course a personal investment in the investigation ('now it's personal :-)). So we have the good cop with a revenge motive, but the chase isn't enough to fill the runtime. No, we also are forced to suffer - surprise, surprise - the obligatory (but in this case unfortunately also clumsily set up) love interest played by a young Carmen Ejogo. Sure; she's very easy on the eyes but as an actress she's sub-par. Then we have a fellow cop, lifelessly portrayed by Art Evans, and it must be said the poor fellow's been typecast, his role in the script is mainly to be victimized(also see: Die Hard 2 for an almost identical role). His monotone delivery and robot-like autopilot acting certainly didn't lift this film to a higher level, neither did Denis Arndt's one-dimensional police chief, the villain whose dialog consisted primarily of grunting or the gross of the side-characters for that matter. They are mainly present for giving us some insight in our lead's personal life (and some perspective) and of course to pitch for Eddie Murphy's jokes. The only roles that still spring to mind as I recollect on the movie today are Michael Rapaport and Donal Logue, both competently playing their respective roles.
Other clichés for the fanatic cliché-spotters among you, the rain suddenly appearing when a tragic event happened: both when Murphy's friend is murdered, as when there's an attempted murder on his girlfriend. Speaking of which, there's one cliché scene to build up the tension before the attempt, where we see Ejogo in a shoulder-shot frame as she puts on perfume in front of a bathroom mirror. She opens and closes the mirror/cabinet two times, with tense music playing, as if any moment some creep will appear behind her (the best use of that sort of scene can be found at the end of 'Candyman').
The action scenes felt very standard. The soundtrack bugged me to a lesser degree, it really couldn't make up its mind. The other big flaws are an OD of love story, a waste of plot opportunities (a lot more tactical SWAT stuff would've been welcome) and a lack of funny scenes (especially with the cop partners). But it is precisely that humor that keeps 'Metro' from totally falling apart, I'll never be Murphy's biggest fan but as a comedian he's far from mediocre (although we don't see his best work in this movie). I did appreciate the way they threw us off track time after time: as to who (or what) Troy is, the restaurant scenes (with the implied marriage proposal) and the hostage negotiation training scene. Those scenes, and the opening hostage situation, made up 90% of the enjoyment level of 'metro' for me.
In the end 'Metro' can be summed up as painfully (almost insultingly) mediocre but still enjoyable because of the humor involved.
We have the typical hero-cop; underpaid, under-appreciated by his boss, personal problems galore,financial troubles to boost, a smirking sense of humor, and of course a personal investment in the investigation ('now it's personal :-)). So we have the good cop with a revenge motive, but the chase isn't enough to fill the runtime. No, we also are forced to suffer - surprise, surprise - the obligatory (but in this case unfortunately also clumsily set up) love interest played by a young Carmen Ejogo. Sure; she's very easy on the eyes but as an actress she's sub-par. Then we have a fellow cop, lifelessly portrayed by Art Evans, and it must be said the poor fellow's been typecast, his role in the script is mainly to be victimized(also see: Die Hard 2 for an almost identical role). His monotone delivery and robot-like autopilot acting certainly didn't lift this film to a higher level, neither did Denis Arndt's one-dimensional police chief, the villain whose dialog consisted primarily of grunting or the gross of the side-characters for that matter. They are mainly present for giving us some insight in our lead's personal life (and some perspective) and of course to pitch for Eddie Murphy's jokes. The only roles that still spring to mind as I recollect on the movie today are Michael Rapaport and Donal Logue, both competently playing their respective roles.
Other clichés for the fanatic cliché-spotters among you, the rain suddenly appearing when a tragic event happened: both when Murphy's friend is murdered, as when there's an attempted murder on his girlfriend. Speaking of which, there's one cliché scene to build up the tension before the attempt, where we see Ejogo in a shoulder-shot frame as she puts on perfume in front of a bathroom mirror. She opens and closes the mirror/cabinet two times, with tense music playing, as if any moment some creep will appear behind her (the best use of that sort of scene can be found at the end of 'Candyman').
The action scenes felt very standard. The soundtrack bugged me to a lesser degree, it really couldn't make up its mind. The other big flaws are an OD of love story, a waste of plot opportunities (a lot more tactical SWAT stuff would've been welcome) and a lack of funny scenes (especially with the cop partners). But it is precisely that humor that keeps 'Metro' from totally falling apart, I'll never be Murphy's biggest fan but as a comedian he's far from mediocre (although we don't see his best work in this movie). I did appreciate the way they threw us off track time after time: as to who (or what) Troy is, the restaurant scenes (with the implied marriage proposal) and the hostage negotiation training scene. Those scenes, and the opening hostage situation, made up 90% of the enjoyment level of 'metro' for me.
In the end 'Metro' can be summed up as painfully (almost insultingly) mediocre but still enjoyable because of the humor involved.