by Leonardo Cervantes
Netflix’s “Rogue City,” also known as “Bronx,” is an action-packed police thriller full of betrayal and violence. The police are put in difficult situations and to survive, they must question their morality. Oliver Marchal is the film’s director and, interestingly enough, was previously a policeman.
The plot of the movie is a special police force fighting off gangs in order to keep peace but among the police are corrupt cops working with the gangs.
The film is gritty and contains a lot of brutality. The film opens with six police officers escorting a high profiled gang member out of prison.
He is being transported from Battume penitentiary to another more secure prison where he is likely to die.
Richard Vronski (Lannick Gautry) is the protagonist in the film and he leads an anti-gang squad that fights against drug trafficking and organized crime.
The audience is quickly shown his compassionate side. While escorting a high-profiled criminal to jail, he grants him his wish of visiting his dying wife in the hospital who is suffering from terminal cancer.
Vronski had no reason to do it, but he granted his wish anyway, otherwise the criminal would have never seen his wife again.
Ange Leonetti (Jean Reno) is introduced as the new police chief as he previously was a well-respected cop and a man of integrity.
Many of the cops are crooked and working with gangs and sharing intel with them in order for protection, money and drugs.
Vronski along with others in the anti-gang squad are led to believe they have a double agent in their department, but cannot figure out who it is.
Vronski is left with a tough decision, either he can continue the gang war against the Bastiani family or he can make a compromise.
He decides he no longer wants the war to continue so in exchange for peace Vronski is handed a notebook that contains every corrupt cop along with guns and drug information.
Vronski already suspected which cops might be dirty but was surprised by the main culprit that aided gangs.
Even higher ranking officers above Vronski were passing along information to gangs.
A major shootout occurred at a bar that left a dozen civilians killed and coincidentally a gang member was also shot and injured.
Vronski was able to track down one of the lead suspects at a church because his fingerprints were found at the crime scene.
The Church was considered a sacred ground so the suspect did not comply with Vronski and this made Vronski turn hostile.
This scene caused a lot of commotion and everyone in church turned their heads at Vronski.
The film did not live up to its full potential.
A lot of characters are introduced, however, only a few like Vronski and Willy Kapellian (Stanislas Merhar) receive a proper backstory.
The rampage all around the city lead to massive amounts of innocent lives lost.
The film goes over the top to be edgy and show violence. The film shows innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of gangs and the police.
Many of the characters that are killed off are not properly introduced so the audience has no real attachment to them.
Vronski’s anti-gang unit is a well-trained group organized to hunt down dangerous gangs.
Yet, none of the members are given the proper screen time and backstory except for Merhar who has problems with his wife and is emotional.
He is one of the few cops besides Vronski that gets to speak.
The audience is never given a reason for why Zach Damato (David Belle) and Max Beaumont (Kaaris) are so loyal to Vronski. They just follow his orders and hardly even speak.
The film is intended for mature audiences and even then, the amount of violence can turn some people off.