Shakedown (1988)

  It's a wonder anyone survived New York City in the 80's.  I found this lost gem (also known as Blue Jean Cop outside of the States) while I was poking around on Wikipedia.  It's available on Streaming from Netflix so I thought why not?

Roland Dalton (Peter Weller) is a public defender about to leave it all behind and join his fiancee's (Blanche Baker) daddy on Wall Street when he gets handed One Last Case.  Michael Jones (Richard Brooks) is a crack dealer who shot and killed a cop.  He fully admits that part, but claims it's self-defense instead of murder.  The dead cop never identified himself as a police officer, just pulled a gun and demanded money, so Jones defended himself.  Roland talks to his cop buddy, Richie (Sam Elliott), about the case and is told to watch his ass because if there's one thing corrupt cops don't like, it's somebody nosing in their business.

Was Sam Elliott ever young?  I swear, that man was born with a salt and pepper mustache. Also, keep an eye out for John C. McGinley in a sort of proto-Dr. Cox from Scrubs role. 

There were parts of this movie where I wasn't sure if it was being funny on purpose or just accidentally.  With 80's movies, it's hard to be sure.  Pretty much everything about their hair and wardrobe is now unintentionally hilarious.  Be sure to really savor the bad cop leader's magnificently coiffed mullet. 

I can't help but feel bad for this movie.  It was trying to tap into that Lethal Weapon buddy cop magic but it just doesn't get there.  It might be time to dust this one off and bring it out of the cold oblivion of obscurity, though.