Parents' Guide to Detective Knight: Rogue

Certainly one of the better Bruce Willis low-budget action movies, this one still suffers from confusing bits, as well as an uncomfortable vacancy where its star ought to have been. Coming from director and co-writer Edward Drake, whose previous credits with Willis include the atrocious Cosmic Sin, Detective Knight: Rogue clearly had more effort put into it. The story is decently constructed, with enough twists and turns to keep the sturdy, interesting characters moving through it with a semblance of logic. Having the team of robbers consist of pro athletes who were, for one reason or another, banned from their respective sports is a good idea. Society appears to have no more use for them, and they feel like they have no other choice than to turn to crime. (One of them, Mike, is played by the son of Wayne Gretzky, whose face graces the million-dollar sports card the team is asked to steal.)

The characters are also designed to create a buffer around Willis, who in real life suffers from aphasia. He's the title character here, but it's the others who more or less keep the plot moving. This is especially true of Detective Sango, who's deeply sympathetic and interacts easily with Willis. Drake also seems to have had more time to craft scenes around his star in this film, and things flow more naturally than in the pair's earlier movies. Even so, certain scenes in Detective Knight: Rogue -- such as a flashback to a man being shot and killed in front of a screaming toddler, or a man allowing himself to be killed by police -- are baffling. And if you're aware of Willis' real-life condition, it's very difficult to let go and have a good time.