Shakedown (1988)

like few great genre films, it manages to be many things at once: legal thriller, buddy movie, time capsule of period nyc grit, endorsement of blue jeans, anti-cop, proof that stunt performers deserve oscars but, most of all, it's just a guaranteed great time

Justin LaLiberty

foamy, chromatic 80s banger that's shaking and baking like a chef. quite a lot of sexy shots of the NYC smut of that decade, that is so lovely to watch on gentrified screens nowadays. the buddy comedy is a little self-defeating but Sam Elliott is beasting around like he's…

shookone

"Shakedown" is a 1988 crime action thriller directed by James Glickenhaus. Starring Peter Weller as a scrappy defense attorney and Sam Eliott as a gritty street level cop, the film is a crazy gathering of ideas all thrown into to one basket to make up the narrative of the…

Blake Bergman "Various Spaghetti"

Bonkers two-hander set in crack era Times Square (essentially the urban wasteland Bill Landis describes at the end of SLEAZOID EXPRESS and the nightmarish hellscape Giuliani made his name on “cleaning up”*). Like THE EXTERMINATOR before it, could’ve only come from the James…

Jacob Knight

At one point in this movie, a judge sets a defendant's bail at a million dollars. The defendant snaps his fingers, and two men walk up to the bench with a briefcase full of $50 and $100 bills. Presumably, the money is just handed directly to the judge because within…

Casey

Peter Weller and Sam Elliott star in basically two interweaving movies, one about courtroom drama and steamy affairs and the other about an undercover cop fighting the corruption in the police force. The direction is slick and the action escalates from plausible and…

merritt k

In New York floriert das Geschäft mit den Drogen so immens gut, das große Teile der Polizei ihr Stück vom Kuchen auch davon abhaben möchten. Sam Elliott und Peter Weller wollen das unterbinden und geben vollen Schub. Ich mag den richtig gerne, nicht nur wegen des…

Headhunter666

A mash-up of sorts between a courtroom drama and a sleazy James Glickenhaus 80s action film, a lot of Shakedown may not always click or work but thanks to some excellent action sequences and performances, it's still a lot of fun. Plot-wise, the story often gets a bit…

AndrewC

I want to love this film so much, but I just couldn't do it. The action scenes (all two of them) are fantastic, the cinematography is beautiful and I love Weller and Elliot, but they're kept apart for about 85% of the running time and the film lacks a propulsive drive. It…

Justin Decloux