Gonzalo Fernandez Carmona’s “Almost Cops” (Original title: Bad Boa’s, 2025) has silliness in spades, but it’s not the kind that makes for essential viewing. The amiability and untroubled façade don’t ever pop off the screen as much as the makers might have thought they’d work. It spins around two characters, throws in ample complications and gags, but none register freshly. There’s a heavily borrowed syntax that never breaks out into something staggeringly individualistic and profoundly vital. It remains a perfect example of ambient viewing, saddled with stock-thin characters and petty grievances.
Each has an axe to grind, but all of it comes off as tacky, incredibly cutesy to the point of being pure fluff. Silly writing needs some conviction and heart. The film reaches for it mostly unsuccessfully. The story lacks the edge required to make all the parts sing in tension and provoke a real thrust. Instead, it moves along in a static succession of events doled out dryly and humourlessly, despite great efforts at making it lively and endearing. The film brings two characters’ mutual camaraderie alive through loss.
Almost Cops (Bad Boa’s, 2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with Ramon, who’s set up as the quintessential, impeccable community service officer who otherwise attracts a fair share of derision for his exerting competence. He is terrifically serious about his job, never dialling down on the onus. Even when the other officers tell him to go slow, he doesn’t pay heed. The film kicks into gear when Ramon’s half-brother, Kevin, who works with his partner, Jack, as undercover cops, gets killed. The two used to conduct drug busts. It’s during an ambush that Kevin gets killed. Hence, Jack is demoted. What he does then is contact Ramon and gets him on board to replace his partner and deliver the dead justice. Ramon is initially oblivious of the fact that Jack used to be Kevin’s partner. He accepts the offer without complaint. The two set out to bring punishment to the fleeing guilty.
Jack, too, is hesitant in teaming up with Ramon, but it becomes inevitable, unavoidable. Jack tries to gain charge and investigate two teens. But Ramon meddles, alleging it’s out of their jurisdiction. They aren’t technically permitted to investigate the case if it has such a direction. Jack turns irate at Ramon, labelling him a man of no principles or basic heroism. He tells him he has no talent, not an ability at all to take the case further as much as required. Even their superior challenges them to move off the trail. However, Ramon picks up gumption and grace and gets on the trail.
Slowly, over the course of the trail, the two forage for clues and suggestions to lead them to the answers. The chase accelerates. The film drops in a lot of contrivances and theatrics, none of which quite make much sense or exhibit adequate fun. Gradually, Ramon realises Kevin was his half-brother. The kinship ties are delivered with ache and compassion. The emotional core of the film gathers force. But it gets gradually diluted. The action drowns out the occasional impulse to eke in emotion.
The two’s relationship gets tender and more coherently realised, even as they breach several hideouts and probe complicated underground networks of powerful men and accomplices. The case accrues urgency and gravity. The police machinery remains largely ignorant, while the two poke around harder and more persistently. All of this makes little sense because the writing isn’t well fleshed out or struts out in flourish. There’s a blandness that overpowers, and the fade becomes more pronounced.
Almost Cops (Bad Boa’s, 2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Are Kevin’s killers punished?
Finally, the duo etch out an important connection, linking a black market to a local hideout. There’s a lot of action, chasing, and provocative pizzazz. What transpires is the film trying to draw out the secret links rather tepidly. There are two characters, but neither of them has that spice or elicit that burst of emotion that makes investing in characters worthwhile. The climax is frenzied.
Jack rescues Ramon in a bloody clash. The criminals are nabbed. There’s triumph. Ramon’s heroism is affirmed. He gets his roses and has his identity proudly validated. So, the film is essentially a story of great service being duly honoured and recognised. Kevin’s killers are brought to account. The central duo’s strength and mutual camaraderie become distinctly affirmed and powerfully backed.
Almost Cops (2025) Movie Review:
There are all sorts of influences hovering over this ‘fun’ cop movie, the most pronounced being Edgar Wright’s cult classic “Hot Fuzz.” But here is none of that zingy, stylishness, a singular humour to propel proceedings. The actors try with all their might to make the most of the situations, extracting as much levity as possible. Yet it all feels tacked over with something fundamentally hollow. A flare, a bite, is sorely missing.
The cops in the film rush through a staggering build-up of investigation, bent on proving their mettle and spirits. The film derives humour and drama from the chase. It strains, too, because what’s needed here is a sharper, more fluid voice, capable of handling jokes delivered at lightning speed. This film does everything in half-measures, abandoning them when it sees nothing is quite panning out as envisioned earlier. A sustained focus is absent. Hence, you sense the pinch of staleness, the tiringly regurgitated tropes. Characters flit by without making a fuss. You don’t watch the cops fumbling about as much as you are just plain bored, wishing the film sped along its route.
The film has no vision of what it wants to be, hence flickering between varying tonalities. The buddy cop film jostles uneasily with ill-placed salvos against systemic corruption and inequity. The lightness and sombre impulses don’t gel well together. This unsure juggling drags the film to a screeching halt even when the pace is chipper. When you feel it can really blast by, the unclear focus mutes out the film’s otherwise breezy energy.
