Cops only come out at night. Or, at least that’s the M.O. of the eponymous “Night Patrol,” a clandestine of sorts group embedded in the notorious LAPD. Being a part of Night Patrol means you’ve made it. Officer partners Xavier (Jermaine Fowler) and Ethan (Justin Long) both want to make it. Xavier’s an ex gang-member who now tries to protect communities who look like him, communities where his younger brother, Crip member Wazi (RJ Cyler) and estranged mother, Ayanda (Nicki Micheaux) still reside. He’s hoping his dedication leads him into the cool-sounding unit. As for Ethan, his reason for Night Patrol is different. It’s hard to know if the group had something to do with the disappearance of his father (Dermot Mulroney) but by joining the group, it would bring him closer to the truth.

Opportunity knocks for Ethan when the doors to Night Patrol are opened by Marcus (Phil “CM Punk” Brooks) who gives Ethan a chance to prove himself. The initiation proves to be a violent one that sets off a chain of events involving witness Wazi, Bloods set leader Bornelius (Freddie Gibbs), and Ethan. Now in Night Patrol, Ethan is closer to the truth about his father, and discovers just how monstrous its officers are.

In recent years, “Dumpuary” isn’t full of cinematic dumps. The month of January has become better for wide releases and streaming ones; no longer the first month of a two-month period that typically had an onslaught of low quality movie after low quality movie. In recent years, moviegoers have been treated to entertaining genre surprises. But every now and then, there are January features that feel like the epitome of the term. Regrettably, I’m referring to Night Patrol. It’s a movie I carried limited expectations for beyond being an amusing genre mashup with an eccentric cast, but left me feeling rather disappointed.

Within Night Patrol, there are a couple of solid moments director and co-writer Ryan Prows creates. Inspired in part by films such as Menace II Society, Dracula, and The Lost Boys, the lighting and cinematography carries a worn and grainy aesthetic fitting of older, lower-budget movies and blaxploitation features. Once the vampires come out to feed, Prows uses some POV scenes shot from the predators’ perspective to jazz things up a bit. That said, the budget constraints show prominently in the latter half and the climactic scenes, including two notable action sequences attempting a stylized feel but landing on a shoddy and clunky one. At least Gibbs’ immaculate track, Pronto, is heard liberally throughout the runtime.

There are a lot of conflicts, and by extension, societal issues embedded in Night Patrol. Written by the aforementioned Prows, Shaye Ogbonna, Tim Cairo, and Jake Gibson, everything from gang warfare, racial tension, police intervention, power structures, and fractured families is on display, and that’s before the supernatural forces oppose each other. Having four writers rarely parlays into a cohesive story, and while I don’t get the sense that the writing room was at odds with each other, the effort to cover so much ground here means very little in the end actually sticks, creating a mess of tones and unfulfilled plotlines/character arcs. Puzzling as well, it deviates from the expected mystic crime-thriller into something that resembles the worst of action setpieces found frequently in recent Marvel movies post Endgame.

Cyler and Fowler are two actors who I have found to be underrated and adaptable, who can readily be important anchor points (see: The Blackening, Power Rangers, and The Harder They Fall) in nearly any film they appear in. Here, both function as co-leads, but the writing does neither any favors, especially Fowler, whose character is surprisingly unimportant to the meat of the story. With a cast that also carries names like Mulroney and Long in addition to individuals who have loads of charisma but less silver screen acting experience in CM Punk, Gibbs. Flying Lotus, and YG, the performances were never expected to be buzzworthy. Yet, a handful of them are saddled with a brutal 1-2 combination of profane dialogue and rough line delivery. It wouldn’t be so bad if there were more of a consistent comedic undertone (Gibbs seems to know his character’s assignment, and he’s the one character that the writing team seems to have the best grip on), but this is definitely the wrong cast to have delivering dialogue that feels stiff and overly dramatic.

The ambition is respected, but the execution and thin spreading across genres handcuffs Night Patrol. By nibbling its fangs into many important and timely systemic issues rather than sinking them into a select few, it makes it difficult to extract what we’re supposed to take away from it.

D

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