THis is one of the weirdest cop buddy movies I've seen.

This movie starts with being the usual fluff cop film that we know from the 80's: Veteran cop who doesn't give a damn about orders and is a know-it-all gets a new partner. New partner is of course the complete oppposite of veteran cop, so we spent half the movie of them getting to like each other.

And to be honest the first half of this movie is actually quite decent, the two cops bond slowly and naturally together, not over a shoot-out or a life-threatening situation where one guy saves the other. No, it's a fairly simple thing like the love of motorcycles.

Little details like this is what made the movie grow. But somewhere along the lines the writers pull out a jackhammer and the plot gets very outlandish with cartoon villains that are supposed to be Germans but look like Colombians.

At the same time the movie decides to take a deep dive into the psyche of the rookie cop and goes full-Taxi Driver. Something completely out of the left field. The scene in itself is quite entertaining, it's just that it feels like we're watching a completely different movie suddenly.

The tone is all over the place.

Mild spoilers: Even the title "The Rookie" hints that the movie's focusing on Charlie Sheen's character but the movie spends equal amounts of time. But during the third act both cops get seperated and everyone is on their own adventure. The conseqences of their action's feel disjointed, but it doesn't matter since we're eventually rushed through the showdown. And this one is dragged out into three set pieces. Again, all by itself those action set pieces work but they feel clumsily stitched together.

This whole movie feels like a bunch of good ideas thrown into the wall and see what sticks. Too bad, because Eastwood and Sheen have a very unique chemistry in the beginning but it is all blown into smithereens later on.

There's absolutely no subtlety for the villains played by Raul Julia and Sonia Braga. They are so blood thirsty and desperate that when their criminal empire falls apart, they have no expression on their face, cast against type as German criminals who use Hispanics to do their dirty work in stealing deluxe automobiles, although it's Julia who pulls the trigger to take out the partner of detective Clint Eastwood in the opening scene. He's not pleased by his replacement, a by the book rookie (Charlie Sheen) who has to learn a few lessons if he's going to survive his profession.

This is a violent and vicious crime drama that has many disturbing moments and a few where you cheer the good guys, especially Sheen when he stops being Mr. Procedure and starts taking some desperate risks. There's no charm at all in Julia's character, and Braga is more venomous here than she was in "Kiss of the Spider Woman". Julia looks like Hal Linden in a dark wig, completely unemotional. It's hard to judge the performance of an actor you usually love playing such a one dimensional character, but Julia's certainly unforgettable. As unpleasant as the film is to watch, it's certainly an unforgettable one.