Double Bang

Er, well, would you believe it's not that bad? Now that your expectations are appropriately middling, you might be able to appreciate Double Bang, a reasonably entertaining cop drama about an NYPD officer (William Baldwin) who gets all upset when he crooked partner (Adam Baldwin) ends up dead. Billy heads out on a vigilante mission, interrogating the usual suspects and dishing out his own brand of justice by turning the bad guys against their own.

Along the way he gets mildly involved with an informer's girlfriend (he's a drug-addicted gigolo; she's a ritzy psychotherapist... happens all the time, y'all), whom he must protect from an assassin who's wrestling with a past of his own.

Some of it makes sense, some of it doesn't, but almost all of it is well-made and competently acted. The direction is unintrusive, and the dialogue amuses more often than not. Direct-to-video doesn't always mean utter crap, but you can be forgiven for assuming it does. That's not to say that Double Bang is worthy of an Oscar, but if they brought back those ACE Cable Awards, these guys might be in the running for something.