Movie review: ‘Cop Car’

The idea of casting Kevin Bacon as a corrupt, rural sheriff on the hunt for the two pre-teens who stole his police vehicle could make for some grade-A, B-movie fun.

But director/co-writer Jon Watts plays it straight down the line in Cop Car. While not nearly as fuel-injected as the tag line suggests (“their first drive could be their last”), this is a solid little thriller with strong performances, most notably from Bacon himself.

Travis (James Freedman-Jackson) and Harrison (Hays Wellford) are 10-year-olds running away from home in eastern Colorado. In the middle of this high-plains desolation, they come across a police car with the driver-side door unlocked and the keys still in it. What’s a boy to do? Take it, of course.

If only they knew that Sheriff Kretzer (Bacon) was off in the woods burying a body.

From there, it’s a too-long game of cat and mouse, or cop and kid, a sort of “Boys’ Own Adventure” with murder as a possible outcome. And whatever you do, kids, don’t look in the back seat or the trunk.

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This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 10:59 AM with the headline "Movie review: ‘Cop Car’."