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Short Time (1990)
This movie had a fun premise: a careful cop learns he has a terminal illness, and the doctors give him only a week to live. Actually, his results have been accidentally mixed-up with another patient, and he's in fine health. But thinking he is going to die any day, he decides to get killed on the job, so his ex-wife and child will get the fuller line-of-duty death benefits. He becomes fearless in chasing down criminals, walking into the most dangerous situations imaginable with nothing but calm and the hopes of actually dying a horrible and dramatic death. This turns him into a super cop. Just wait until he finds out he's in good health!
The resulting movie Short Time is OK, but doesn't really do the most with this idea that it could have. Dabney Colman stars, and he's appropriate casting I suppose, but it's a really low-budget flick with a first-time director who was destined to only work on episodes of "Walker, Texas Ranger". It's not a bad movie, but the tone isn't dark as it should be, and beyond the clever central idea it has no more ammo. In the hands of a better and more inventive filmmaker, this one could have been an all-time classic instead of a sort of diverting little movie nobody ever heard of.
Oh, well.
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra