Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

For anyone with children of their own, Jon Watts' Cop Car may just be one of the most uncomfortable cinematic experiences you'll ever sit through, as it revels in putting its two young protagonists through hell as part of their unique coming-of-age. The two baby- faced runaways at the story's centre are played with incredible naturalism by James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford, which will no doubt make the movie all the more distressing for any doting parents. The rest of us can marvel at an incredibly well-constructed and tightly-wound thriller, which also ventures into neo-noir territory akin to early work of the Coen Brothers and, more recently and albeit with less blood, Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin. It's a small piece of work that didn't escape the eyes of Marvel Studios, who quickly snapped Watts up for their delicate reboot of Spider- Man.Opening in a vast field in the middle of nowhere, pre-teens Travis (Freedson-Jackson) and Harrison (Wellford) wander aimlessly practising swearing and sharing a Slim Jim. It's soon becomes clear that they have run away from home, but less clear is why and just how far they've come. Their boredom is soon relieved by the sight of an empty police car, parked suspiciously with keys still in the ignition and an empty beer bottle on the hood. Curiosity naturally gets the better of them and they are soon revving up the engine and teaching themselves how to drive. If anyone pulls them over, they'll just claim to be the police. We are then treated to a flashback, in which we learn that the car's owner, Sheriff Kretzer (Kevin Bacon), is not a very nice man at all. He strips to his vest, dons gloves, and proceeds to pull a body out of the trunk and buries it. When he returns to his parking spot and realises his grave error, he quickly starts to cover his tracks and hunt down the thieves.The plot of Cop Car relies heavily on sheer stupidity. Kretzer, an experienced officer, should not have left the keys behind, or his gun, or the soon-to-be-discovered roughed-up criminal in the trunk (played by Shea Whigham). But many great thrillers are built upon the clumsy actions of the buffoons driving the action, and Cop Car is no exception. In keeping the characters backgrounds a mystery, they come unpredictable, and the film becomes increasingly intense because of this. Watts and Christopher Ford's screenplay carefully moves its small band of characters into place (including a nosy bystander played by Camryn Manheim whose good intentions seem to be destined for tragedy) for a thrilling finale that manages to keep you on the edge of your seat right up to the very last scene. Passed on for a cinema release, Cop Car is a fine example of the kind of surprises to be found with straight-to-DVD titles, elegantly combining action, dark humour, and a believable coming-of-age tale.

I had never heard of this film but my Tivo picked it up. It turned out to be a pretty good, apparently low budget film. The beginning is slow as the movie spends a bit of time trying to set up the improbable event that leads to the main narrative. (Anybody who knows the name of the movie and/or has read anything about the movie knows what is coming, but I will avoid saying it just in case.) Once that events happen, things flow along fairly steadily. The limited cast does a good job. I though Camryn Manheim's role was especially good because it was a very dark comic relief. It was so good that I wasn't sure that there was really any comedy rather than just nervous release/relief. The movie presents a dark outlook on the world (or maybe just rural America), so don't watch it if you are easily depressed.

Cop Car is the sort of callous thriller that socks you right in the gut, then kicks you in the nuts before you've had a chance to grab a breath. It's premise is simple: on the quiet plains of rural Colorado, two young lads wander about aimlessly, practicing their cuss words and trying to impress one another with various mischief. All of a sudden they stumble on a seemingly abandoned cop car in a secluded glen. What do they do? They do what any respectable, rational one of us would, of course. They steal the thing and careen about across the terrain, before taking off down the highway. It's just their luck that the vehicle happens to belong to Sheriff Kretzer (Kevin Bacon) an evil son of a bitch who's just about as far from the law as one can get. He was out there doing dark deeds in the bush, and arrives back to find his cruiser gone, reacting with an amusing fight or flight tantrum not unlike that of a cornered coyote. Bacon has a canine look to him as well, amplified by the fact that he's in his late 50's and is looking all brittle and scary as hell these days. He panics and goes on a mad yet calculated hunt to find the car before his dirty little secrets are flung about the county and his jig is up. Employing MacGyver worthy tricks, chilling cruelty and a bone rattling, hyena esque cackle, he hunts the two youngsters down relentlessly, and they elude him through sheer dumb luck. Speaking of dumb, the kids are remarkably stupid even for ten year olds, and it's tough for the film to draw forth any sympathy from us by any means other than the fact that they are children, run disastrously amok. They're forced not only to deal with Bacon, but a sleazeball who they find bloodied up in his trunk, played by the ever entertaining Shea Wigham. He has an exchange of dialogue with the boys that will separate those with a dark, messed up sense of humour from those without, and I was laughing up a storm. The film reminded me of similarly vehicular themed thrillers like The Hitcher and Duel, and can certainly be put on that same pedestal of quality. Blood, burnt rubber, sweat and tears abound here, and what's more, the thing makes sense in its turn of events. So many thrillers erupt into bombastic and unbelievable plot turns that serve shock value or simply exist to be a showcase piece for the trailer. This one gallops along a series of events that are stacked up like a nasty Jacob's Ladder of fate, each step of the way a logical piece of the story, nothing brashly jumping at us or taking us out of the story. Admirable traits, not found too often these days. Watch for Camryn Manheim and an invisible Kyra Sedgwick as well. A lean, mean little flick, guaranteed to raise a pulse and steal a few well earned, guilty grins from you, as well as impress you with it's competence in execution, and restraint in keeping things fast, to the point and mean to the core.

A pair of kids find an abandoned cop car and decide to take it for a joyride. Unfortunately, the car belongs to the local sheriff, who is a very bad man. The boys end up in a deadly game of cat & mouse as 'Bacon' will stop at nothing to track them down.A very heavy amount of time is spent on the scenery, on the outskirts of an old dusty American town, lots of back-roads, lots of time spent showing the boys going through fields - which really tried my patience. Yes, I get that the wide open spaces are supposed to be beautiful & boys are just being boys & this is supposed to be part of the build-up but that was all wasted on me. I would have edited this movie differently; I guess I would have changed the entire look and feel of the movie to make it more fast paced.I probably would not have watched this movie if Kevin Bacon had not been in it. That being said, the movie does suck you in; once you get into it; you do want to see how things turn out & what's going to happen to the two boys.