"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 spp, 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 territories: 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 this 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... 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 surprised to see how wooden and emotionless Sheen played his character, does he have a cramp on his lips that prevents him from smiling from time to time? I was also surprised by Pepe Serna, the ill-fated Tony Montana's drug-deal partner in "Scarface", there was just something in his voice and accent that didn't quite match the lines he was supposed to shout. I was also surprised by how underused Julia and Braga were. These two Latin actors don't need many lines of dialogues to exude their talent (and Braga was an unforgettable femme fatale) but I wish there was some depth added to their relationship, that would have made that 'rape' scene less gratuitous at least. It was also fun to see these guys working for Puvloski and Storm (or Strom?) getting bullets in retribution, talk about insisting that crime doesn't pay. I was also disappointed by the way David's backstory didn't quite add up to his character... precisely because he doesn't even save Nick's ass.The film had so many flaws I lost track... but my presumption is that Eastwood did it for the money in the way that you honor a command, I read that he had to make a movie for Warner Bros and maybe after two art-house films ("White Hunter, Black Heart" and "Bird") he decided to loosen up a bit and have fun. I'm fine with his idea of having fun and at least, you can tell he put quite a budget, judging by the impressive quality of the stunts work. But there's a reason the film didn't quite take off with the box-office although it was a mild success, it's not because it faced the competition of "Home Alone" because action pictures like "Total Recall" or "Die Hard 2" did better, so maybe it had to be a not so good word-of-mouth. But it was still good enough to deliver what was expected to an audience who knew what to expect.It could be better given its talented director and its set of villains, it's unfortunate that they had to put so much effort on the hardest part and not tried to densify the story a little, but I'll end with the same nostalgic tone that opened this review, "The Rookie" wasn't a theater film but the perfect movie to rent in VHS for a fun Saturday afternoon.

Good that Charlie Sheen pays homage to the superb Blazing Saddles at one point, but definitely towards the lower end of the scale in Clint Eastwood Police films. Raul Julia was a splendid actor, but he just does not look German - who ever thought he could convincingly play a German criminal? And why is it assumed that all someone needs to do to depict a Police Lieutenant or Captain is to get someone who shouts at everyone around him. Charlie Sheen's Father is entirely miscast as a very rich business-man - the actor does not look comfortable in a suit. Clint Eastwood throughout is good, but needed a better script and a less ordinary hand-gun (it just seems wrong for him to have a run-of-the mill .45 - or it could even be a 9mm/.38). Many of the supporting cast in fights and gunfights are clearly awaiting a cue before springing into ineffectual action. This should be classified as a Charlie Sheen film but Clint Eastwood probably would consign it to the back shelf.

Continuing my plan to watch every Clint Eastwood movie in order I come to The Rookie (1990)Plot In A Paragraph: A veteran cop (Eastwood) whose partner is killed, gets paired up with a by the book rookie (Charlie Sheen) who has to be taught the rules of the street by the older officer. The plot alone tells us we are not going to get anything original here. We've seen the story a hundred times before. Everything we see here is something that has worked in another Clint Eastwood detective movie. His character Nick Pulovski is a mean tempered, committed detective with a love of one liners much like Harry Callaghan. He doesn't want a new partner but he's forced to take one. Due to the veteran cop having a personal vendetta against the bad guy (He did kill his partner after all) we get the obligatory scene where he is pulled off the case. We know the drill. The cop will wage a private war no matter what his orders are, and the rookie will back his partner as far as the rule book allows. After initially disliking each other, the partners start to get on.?Veteran cop will need saving by the Rookie, who by now has disregarded the rule book. Then throw in a sex scene, a couple of chases and a shoot out at the end. Despite having the lowest budget of an Eastwood movie since Pale Rider (only $10 million dollars) and the lowest budget of an Eastwood cop movie for 13 years (The Gauntlet) it's all up there on the screen, displayed during The Rookie's many action sequences we get a lot of explosions and high speed chases. Eastwood certainly does well with what he had as it looks like a much more expensive movie. Looking at the budget, after three flops in a row, were Warner Bros starting to lose faith in Eastwood?? He had made Warner Bros a lot of money by this point, as his 20 previous movie for them usually performed well against their budgets, but none of his previous 7 movies had ended in the years top 10 highest grossers, since Sudden Impact in 1983. Since The Rookie was part of the White Hunter Black Heart deal with Warner Bros, with Eastwood making a more commercial movie of their choice, I'm not sure how much of the blame falls at Eastwood's door, but as actor and director he must take some of it. Even if he gives the best performance in the movie. Charlie Sheen is OK, if surprisingly subdued (He later admitted to being terrified of Clint, and said it showed in his performance) Raul Julia and Sonja Braga are disappointingly under used!! Action movies live and die by their villain, here we have two excellent actors, going through the motions of performing in parts, than have no lines worth speaking and no distinguishable identities.In a year dominated by Home Alone, Ghost, Pretty Woman and Dances With Wolves, The Rookie grossed $21 million at the domestic Box Office to end the year the 56th highest grossing movie of 1990.

Officially I've seen this movie twice. My memory is a bit hazy- I remember through a cloud of smoke seeing The Machine( Charlie Sheen )talking to Dirty Harry but not in a good Dirty Harry movie, this is a piece of crap Dirty Harry movie, like I guess Dirty Harry got demoted cause he's working in the auto theft department, his partner still gets killed so its still a Dirty Harry movie but like Charlie Sheen keeps popping up getting a lot of screen-time, as if he were playing the role of a principal character, but that can't be right cause that would mean some one intentionally employed The Machine to act, and anyone who gives Charlie Sheen acting work is crazy, no, really man, I'm telling you, CRAZY. Also this movie has a car chase, not one hundred percent sure if it actually does have a car chase scene but I'm gonna just wing- it and assure you that it does have a car chase, eh.