James Ellroy's tale of hyper-corruption (scripted by Training Day's David Ayer) uses the 1992 Rodney King race riots as an uneasy backdrop to a dirty-cop cover-job: a police-sanctioned multiple-murder set up by Brendan Gleeson's general, who fully expects his LAPD foot soldiers to clean up after him.

Boorish and bullish, Kurt Russell's mace-first, questions-later cop is a giant creation, all boil, eyes and phenomenal swearing. He's so good, in fact, that when his white-trash detective isn't around, there's a big hole that even Ving Rhames' widescreen enigma has trouble filling. Still, forgive a gimmicky LA riot car chase and Russell's fuming, muscular closing monologue delivers a devastating punch to a rough and jagged urban thriller.

DVD Extras:

Save a Making Of featurette puffed with the usual self-inflated, Hollywood fruit-cake hyperbole, the disc's only real attraction is a gab-track from director Ron Shelton, - a throaty droner afflicted with a voice so dry it could dehydrate the Danube. It's a thorough, film-schooly autopsy of editing and angles, but really - shouldn't the always-fun Kurt Russell have been invited to talk up one of his heaviest turns to date?