Bad Detectives (2021 | USA | 72 minutes | Presley Paras)
The concept was a good one and the trailer had me intrigued (see below), but this “buddy detective” style dark comedy fell sadly flat of its potential. The two daughters, Nic and Ping, of life-long friends and partnered detectives are thrown into the seedy underworld of trying to find out why their fathers met an untimely death. Most people the women ran into assumed their fathers had died of natural causes, but they soon find out there’s something much more nefarious going on. Despite an animosity between the two, they found a way to work together and discover what really happened to their beloved dads.
I wanted to love this film, it has two women as leads (one of color) and while it fell into a few typical tropes of the cop/detective flick genres, I’m a fan so that wouldn’t deter me. It felt lower-budget not because of the sets or props, but because of the editing and direction. While the actors had the potential to really pull this together, the line delivery and chemistry between them just didn’t hit the mark.
One other notable issue is the IMDB page for the film. Despite having very few white actors, the top billing is given to a white blonde woman who is shown in literally the last 30 seconds of the film and that’s it. I think she’s meant to add clout to an otherwise very indie film… but it put me off. I know it’s kind of a weird thing to mention, but it seemed really odd to me.
It’s not the worst movie you’ll see this summer, but it’s definitely not the best.
Bad Detectives is available on VOD 06/22