Body Cam – A Ridiculous Yet Entertaining Trainwreck (Early Review)

Body Cam, the latest VOD entry from Paramount Pictures is definitely a surprise for better or worse. This utterly ridiculous experience will surely not be for everyone, especially those who are feint of heart, but the trainwreck of it all still managed to be somewhat compelling to watch in an odd kind of way. Though the film’s title may suggest a certain kind of film, suffice it to say that it will actually be something much different. The actual premise here is so ridiculous and over-the-top that it shouldn’t work, however. it never managed to fall of the rails. While the film tries to do something different within the cop subgenre by veering into the supernatural to try and provide some sort of social commentary, the impact of that commentary, however important, gets lost in all the ridiculousness.

Body Cam saw a veteran cop named Renee (Blige) come back from a layoff and having to prove herself to others and herself after controversy and tragedy in her professional and personal lives. Meanwhile, she would be paired with a fellow officer named Danny (Wolff), a relative newcomer to the force. The experience gap between the two was fairly apparent but that would disappear quickly once the main story began thus rendering their relationship nearly nonexistent, triggered by a gruesome traffic stop resulting in the death of one of her fellow officers. Little did Renee know, she would share a unique connection to the case where she was the only one who can see any footage of the incident. Clearly things would get much worse from here for her and her fellow officers though there was this connection with the case that made her want to pursue it further, much to the delight of Danny.

From there, Body Cam was a cat and mouse game between Renee and Danny and whatever force was responsible as it left a gratuitously violent path of destruction in its wake (definitely earning its R rating in the process). The backstory may be well-intentioned but it’s still hard to take seriously underneath all that ridiculous violence. Despite this, the film remained somewhat compelling to watch thanks to Renee and her sheer determination. Though the dialog may be questionable at best with some laughably bad lines and the film’s low budget often showed via the production design and the questionable special effects, the overall b-movie nature of it all was still sort of entertaining. While it the story mostly sticks the landing by all coming together at the end, it failed to justify the journey that led to that point.

In the end, the best part of Body Cam undoubtedly was the dynamite lead performance by Blige as Renee. While the majority of the film around her was utterly ridiculous, she brought some much needed humanity and likability to the role, creating some sort of emotional connection as she was fun to watch and at least helped to anchor the film. Meanwhile, Wolff was miscast as Danny as he fell victim to most of the bad dialog with his delivery making those lines unintentionally hilarious. Blige and Wolff did have some chemistry but the film ultimately got better once he essentially disappeared and handed the reigns to Blige. Though Zayas as Sgt. Kesper and the others were fine, they paled in comparison.

At the end of the day, Body Cam won’t work for everyone but in its own right, is a mindless escape for those who know what they are going in to.

*still courtesy of Paramount Pictures*

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.