User Reviews

The Wharf Rat finds Lou Diamond Phillips and Scott Cohen as brothers, Cohen is a cop and Phillips is a criminal. Both drive their mother Rita Moreno a little batty with their rivalry.

But when Cohen is killed by his new partner Judge Reinhold for wearing a wire while Reinhold is committing a robbery. Phillips springs into action. With the help of investigative reporter Rachel Ticotin justice is eventually done.

But in this film it's how justice is done. Lou pulls off quite a caper in the process, as neat a one as ever been put on film. Quite expertly planned if I do say so myself, it's the main reason you should see The Wharf Rat.

Scott Cohen shows his range as an actor here. Contrast his performance here as a straight arrow with the quirky, corrupt, and homicidal Lieutenant Denby a corrupt cop on several episodes of NYPD Blue which role Cohen is best known for. Those adjectives for Denby apply here to Judge Reinhold and he does well in his part.

The Wharf Rat was made by Paramount for the Showtime network and it's an old fashioned noir type vehicle that we regretfully don't see any more from Hollywood. It's definitely worth a look.

Wharf Rat is a made-for-tv movie about corrupt cops who get their just deserts. Lou Diamond Phillips is Petey, a pretty level-headed Wharf Rat, which essentially means that he can get folks anything they need through the docks. A couple of computer chips disguised as a banana shipment, perhaps? That's Petey's specialty.

Petey's brother, ironically, is a cop named Matt (Scott Cohen). Matt promises Petey he's not going to cut him any slack. He's the ideal cop, playing by the book. Of course, playing by the book is what gets Matt in trouble.

His partner is Doc (Reinhold), a dirty cop who finds Petey and Matt to be a convenient scapegoat when both decline to go along with his dirty deeds smuggling things on the warf. Matt's faced with a double-edged sword: rat on Doc or go along with the corruption. Matt opts for the hard way out, to strap on a wire and get some incriminating information on Doc. But the corruption exists further than Matt expected.

Both Petey and Matt's saviour could be a pretty good investigative journalist (Nicole Farmer) who catches Doc on tape. When Matt's opportunity to expose the station's corruption fails, Petey and the reporter are the last hope to put an end to it and of course, save themselves from a death wish because Doc and his boys aren't going down without a fight. And loyalty for Doc runs further than Petey expected.

The movie is lame because everyone is so tragically nice to one another. Sure, we're dealing with dirty cops and, when you've made it known that you're going out of your way to build a case against them, it seems like these dirty cops--already okay with unethical and immoral behavior--would have no problem tying up loose ends any way they could. But, once again, this is one of those movies where protagonists and antagonists seem far too diplomatic with one another. The ending, while it does make for a good moment of revenge, hardly seemed logical, and also seemed even less exciting. The characters don't seem to behave as people put in this kind of situation would be. I would expect Doc and his goons to be much harsher, and much more violent. Petey, who seems so laid back with everything, even maintains his casual cool when threatened by Doc at gunpoint. I certainly would've expected more attempts by Doc to kill both Petey and the journalist (and maybe even Petey's comical bodyguard, Bucko). The story just seems to be lacking that intesity, and so the interaction between the characters just seems so lad-dee-da.

I think I also have a hard time seeing Judge Reinhold in anything other than comedy. He just always makes me want to laugh. I see, however, I'm in the minority as far as my opinion about this movie. It's not one "action" movie that I'd recommend.