Bruce Willis heads from the City of Angels to the City That Never Sleeps for revenge in the first installment of his final film franchise.

Detective James Knight is one of the best L.A. cops out there. Along with his partner Fitzegerald, they always get the job done. However, one fateful night changes everything. When a band of robbers led by Casey Rhodes begin to wear Halloween masks and start a crime spree, Rhodes shoots Fitzgerald and leaves him to die. Upon learning that Rhodes and his team are heading to New York for their next heist, Knight decides to get even and head there.

He is joined by a fellow LAPD officer, Godwin Sango. However, Knight finds himself in a total bind due to the fact that a local crime boss, Winna, the mastermind behind Rhodes and his team, has Fitzgerald being watched by one of his cronies. As Sango discovers Knight’s situation, he finds himself trapped in a dispute with his moral compass while Casey begins to find himself in a situation where he and his own family may be threatened. All it will take now are two enemies against a common foe but at what cost?

The first in what will be the final film franchise for the retired Bruce Willis, he is more relegated to an extended cameo here. However, you have to give writers Edward Drake and Corey Large credit. It is if they knew what Willis has been going through and somehow give him enough impact to keep the film going while focusing on another major character, in this case, an anti-hero in Casey Rhodes, played by Beau Mirchoff.

Willis’ titular Detective Knight is an unorthodox cop who only wants to get even with the robbers who critically wound his partner Fitzgerald, played by Lochlyn Munro. Once he gets to New York, he gets a new partner in Sango, played well by Jimmy Jean-Louis. Sango is a by-the-book cop who finds his moral compass questioned knowing Knight has somehow gone rogue even when learning the truth. Miranda Edwards’ Anita Shea, the tough and brash chief of the NYPD, is quite the badass supporting character who also questions Knight’s motives and is concerned.

What’s interesting is that Casey was a former football player whose career was done and finds robbery the only way to make ends meet for he and his family. However, the mastermind behind everything, Winna, has this dark past with our “dark Knight” and this is why Winna has moved up the ranks to become his very sadistic boss while Knight is forced into situations that make him bend at the knee even if he just wants to kill the guy himself. This leads to a finale where we see the reluctant detective somehow teaming up with the guy, he was meant to capture in the moments that will lead up to the second film of the franchise, Detective Knight: Redemption.

Detective Knight: Rogue is a pretty good start of a franchise. While we get to see Bruce Willis’s conflicted titular character, the supporting cast of characters are pretty well highlighted as well.

WFG RATING: B

Lionsgate present a 308 Ent production in association with BondIt Capital Media. Director: Edward Drake. Producer: Corey Large. Writers: Edward Drake and Corey Large. Cinematography: Laffrey Witbrod. Editing: Justin Williams.

Cast: Bruce Willis, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Lochlyn Munro, Beau Mirchoff, Miranda Edwards, Michael Eklund, Johnny Messner, Hunter Daily, Cody Kearsley, Trevor Gretzky, Keeya King.