Some applicants for the Icelandic SWAT team go through physical tests. One guy, Hannes, fails miserably. But he is also the son of a cop, not just any cop but a "legend" we are told. But he doesn't get along with dad who doesn't take his son seriously, no one does. Hannes has a wife and little girl. So he applies for Internal Affairs instead and is accepted.
One day he's asked to interview Gunnar in jail, who used to be Iceland's biggest mobster until a Serbian named Sergej arrived and took over all crime. He plans on taking back his empire. He tells Hannes that there's a dirty cop, the chief of narcotics no less, a friend of his dad's, and someone who presumably helped him get the job with IA. But he cannot talk to his dad about it, because the dad just doesn't care for him.
Gunnar provides some info on a drug-and-whore house. When Hannes and the SWAT team arrive nothing's there, but the SWAT leader notices that the narcotic's chief consoles one of the women there. So that confirms to them that he's dirty The first step is to bug the chief's car. By coincidence, this guy discovers the bug and researches to find that Hannes ordered it placed. He then invites Hannes to dinner where he casually mentions that he'll have his car serviced soon. That forces Hannes to remove the bug, all under the watchful eye of the chief who now has confirmation of who's after him. He passes that info on to Sergej who has one of his thugs crash into Hannes' wife's car sending her into a coma.
Hannes and SWAT guy also recruit a girl to infiltrate the chief's office and she helps and obtains info from his phone. In the meantime a new player as arrived in town who wants to flood the market with drugs. He makes a deal with Sergej. And Gunnar provides a tip on where the drugs are. SWAT raids the ship this time without telling the chief. That puts Sergej in a bind who has to send his family back to Serbia for safety reasons. But Sergej with the chief's help strikes back and retakes his drugs as the police are transporting them elsewhere. The chief also discovers the mole in his office and offers her to Sergej's thugs.
Eventually Gunnar leaves jail, but he has some cards up his sleeve. The corrupt chief always finds a way out. He claims Sergej is just an informant with whom he works. And it seems that things will go his way, but he ultimately faces justice from some unlikely hands.
City State 2/Brave Men's Blood is an excellent cop action/drama/thriller. It really gets you involved and you do care for the lead characters and the good cops and you despise the corrupt cop. Oddly though the movie tries to humanize the Serbian mobster a bit too much while trying to paint the local mobster as the sinister one. The action scenes are thrilling. The Hannes character can be a bit too goofy and insecure at times and he makes lots of rookie mistakes, not sure why he doesn't have a mentor. This is a complex story condensed in one and a half hours and sometimes the editing doesn't help, it would have been better had they extended the running time a bit more to allow the story to unfold better. They also tried unnecessarily to present the story at times non-linearly. So there's the oddity that twice we see the scene of Gunnar trying to take revenge. But overall, the story is thrilling and the movie well-made, things aren't straight-forward and we do get some surprises. Highly recommended for a different kind of cop movie with a rich story, great characters, and strong acting.
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