User Reviews

David Ackerman (Charlie Sheen) is a new detective in the LAPD. He's haunted by the guilt over the death of his brother. Nick Pulovski (Clint Eastwood) is a detective investigating Strom (Raul Julia)'s car thief ring. His partner is killed by Strom and the case is transfered to homicide. He is given Ackerman as his new partner and he refuses to let go of the case against Strom.

It's a buddy cop drama with a lifeless buddy cop relationship. Eastwood is rehashing his Dirty Harry persona. Sheen doesn't play off of it well. He's too cold. It lacks humor and it lacks chemistry. There are some fine action stunt work but there isn't much else.

This movie is a very standard cop buddy action film. A veteran cop is assigned to work with a rookie cop to catch a crook who killed the vet's old partner. This is so standard of action film's but that doesnt matter, its still good mindless fun. I though the action was good in this film, especially the opening car chase, and I thought Eastwood gave s good performance and was even funny at times. I am not a big Charlie Sheen fan but I thought he was ok in this one, and Raul Julia was solid as the bad guy. 3.5/5. Recommended, even though its like so many action film's its very enjoyable.

This wasn't ever meant to be a deep dive into the Serpico psyche of cops!

Just a simple action/buddy movie with a few laughs and some ok action.

Julia is great in it though.

From memory (hope I'm not mistaken) Sheen was basically offered the movie by Eastwood to help straighten him out as his recent success was reportedly going to his nose.

And yes the real crime committed in this movie IS the colour of the car!!!

I know, I know. "The Rookie" is a critically lambasted action film, and from what I've read from the other IMDb users, it's considered one of the worst films since "Ishtar"! But, I'll cut "The Rookie" some slack, because I happen to enjoy this flick pretty much. Yeah, the dialogue is a bit crappy, especially by Pepe Serna's lines; he jitters while he talks most of the length of time of the movie!

Well anyway, I thought it is a pretty enjoyable cop drama, due to the funny chemistry between Eastwood and Sheen, who do great Mel Gibson/Danny Glover impressions. The action is intense, and the suspense is quite strong, too. "The Rookie" delivers the goods for fans of the action genre, but for those who want a more logical movie, avoid "The Rookie".

"The Rookie" takes me back to the early 90s when thrillers and action pictures were all set aside for Sunday night, and from time to time, I was allowed to enjoy the movie with my Dad. Give me a few seconds to embrace the nostalgia...

And I remember when I saw good old Clint Eastwood in his car, watching carjackers loading a whole semi-trailer with their recent (and valuable) "purchases", I had but one certitude in mind: his partner would better have a last puff on his buddy's cigars because he'd soon become another "dead on duty" statistic. He wasn't a few days from retirement but he was old, he was Black and well, as Roger Ebert pointed out, the film's title doesn't make you expect a "dazzling work of originality". But I didn't know Ebert at that time, only my classics.

So naturally, the man was shot from behind by the grand theft mastermind, a German (!?) mustached villain played by the late Raul Julia. Of course, it made the matter more personal for Nick Puvloski, a fine and shameless ersatz of Dirty Harry. Did I groan for such a lack of originality from the start? Well, I guess I just enjoyed the chase across the expressway and I knew the film would provide the shot of adrenalin we all expected for a Sunday Night. Of course, Nick doesn't get the villain, but he makes him lose the precious loot, creating another 'personal' grudge on the other side... and the next day, he's assigned a new partner, a young detective named David Ackerman.

The set-up was predictable and the rest of the story was swimming in familiar waters: a tense relationship between the old street-smart cop and the sensitive rookie played by Charlie Sheen, bargains with snitches, television kicked by the bad guy, the sexy villainess, and the spectacular stunts. I didn't see the film for years but my memory wasn't blurry at all, I still had enough scenes stuck in my mind to have it filed in the "memorable films" compartment. I remember Sonia Braga shooting David in the back with that "amateur" line (the ad made me expect he would die for real), I remember David again, getting smoke on his face from a condescending bartender and a few scenes later, returning the favor back with a slightly disproportionate retribution, the spectacularly explosive stunt, natch... and I also liked the final touch at the end with the initial scene being Xeroxed almost line from line.

So when the film ended, we knew it wasn't a masterpiece but we didn't care, we had our share of fun and I gladly saw the re-run a few days later. I was aware of Clint Eastwood's reputation of course and I enjoyed his presence and his interactions with Sheen, but it was long before I became a movie buff, more familiar with his best work and capable to discern between such movies as "The Rookie" and other more valuable achievements. A few years after, on another Sunday night, "A Perfect World" was aired and I was capable to realize that this film played in another league. And we can say in totally objective terms that "The Rookie" doesn't reinvent the wheel, doesn't recreate the same chemistry that made the "Lethal Weapon" series and that it's one of Eastwood's lesser films... but even with that regard, the flaws are still enjoyable to say the least. Don't they call that a guilty pleasure?

I think it says it all. Watching it again, I knew I was supposed to cringe many times. I was surprised to see how wooden and emotionless Sheen played his character, does he have a cramp on his lips that prevents him from smiling from time to time? I was also surprised by Pepe Serna, the ill-fated Tony Montana's drug-deal partner in "Scarface", there was just something in his voice and accent that didn't quite match the lines he was supposed to shout. I was also surprised by how underused Julia and Braga were. These two Latin actors don't need many lines of dialogues to exude their talent (and Braga was an unforgettable femme fatale) but I wish there was some depth added to their relationship, that would have made that 'rape' scene less gratuitous at least. It was also fun to see these guys working for Puvloski and Storm (or Strom?) getting bullets in retribution, talk about insisting that crime doesn't pay. I was also disappointed by the way David's backstory didn't quite add up to his character... precisely because he doesn't even save Nick's ass.

The film had so many flaws I lost track... but my presumption is that Eastwood did it for the money in the way that you honor a command, I read that he had to make a movie for Warner Bros and maybe after two art-house films ("White Hunter, Black Heart" and "Bird") he decided to loosen up a bit and have fun. I'm fine with his idea of having fun and at least, you can tell he put quite a budget, judging by the impressive quality of the stunts work. But there's a reason the film didn't quite take off with the box-office although it was a mild success, it's not because it faced the competition of "Home Alone" because action pictures like "Total Recall" or "Die Hard 2" did better, so maybe it had to be a not so good word-of-mouth. But it was still good enough to deliver what was expected to an audience who knew what to expect.

It could be better given its talented director and its set of villains, it's unfortunate that they had to put so much effort on the hardest part and not tried to densify the story a little, but I'll end with the same nostalgic tone that opened this review, "The Rookie" wasn't a theater film but the perfect movie to rent in VHS for a fun Saturday afternoon.

Some people can dislike Charlie Sheen or Clint Eastwood. Of course, there are some reasons to dislike every man - maybe except Jesus Christ! But such negatively preconceived opinions can not make a real picture.

Here we have a movie of an average plot class, but, methinks, with good actor playing. Clint is perfect as a skilled and dried cop (just as in the '88 Dirty Harry series, 'The Dead Pool' - by the way, one of the best from the collection, maybe even better than 'Magnum Force'), and Sheen is good as a police neophyte. Their relationship is quite intriguing and is shown pretty good!

This is not Shakespeare's work, no one shall expect something swashbuckling from this movie: it is just a relaxing film to 'take a couple of Budweiser, belch twice and go to bed' - or how Clint Eastwood exactly said to describe a good evening. Very optimistic and amusing film. Such movies must be!

There's something sort of comforting about these average-at-best Clint Eastwood movies. Emphasis on the "sort of," because I can't give lesser Eastwood too much credit. There are things about The Rookie, for example, that are terrible. Charlie Sheen's character's tragic backstory coupled with the conversations he had with his father about it end up unintentionally hilarious because of how stilted and cliched they play out, and all the stereotypical gruff police chief characters felt like they were out of a parody film.

But at the end of the day, there's some dumb, fun action, Eastwood has some silly one-liners, and there's some novelty in seeing Eastwood and Sheen in the same movie. The one thing, however, that gets this at least a middle-of-the-road score of 5/10 would be Raul Julia. He's always fun when he plays a villainous role, and he's hamming it up here and seems to be having fun, which makes his performance entertaining.

Still, this is worth it only for Eastwood fanatics, because chances are, if they've dug down deep enough into his body of work to learn about The Rookie, they've likely seen something worse than The Rookie already.

The legendary Clint Eastwood directed & starred in this extremely underrated Action Thriller from 1990.

My favourite Eastwood movie & my favourite Sheen movie. The Rookie is easily one of my favourite movies, making my top 10 list.

The legendary Clint Eastwood is at his best here in my opinion, he's very funny, no-nonsense & plays by his own rules, a perfect veteran movie cop.

The Rookie is my favourite Eastwood movie & my favourite Sheen movie, they worked so well together. Often Sheen is forgotten about, like how good he was back in the day when he was hot stuff. Sheen was excellent in 90's popcorn Action Thriller's like, Terminal Velocity & Shadow Conspiracy. I'm big fan of most Sheen's work from back in the day.

I can honestly say that out of this cracking cop thriller the bit that I've taken from it or that's always stayed with me is Charlie Sheen's performance!!! Sheen is excellent & his bar fight scene is the standout part of the whole excellent movie.

Also another gem is the direct-to-video Action cop thriller, No Code Of Conduct, he stars with his real-life dad Martin Sheen.

Eastwood plays Nick, a veteran Detective assigned to the grand theft auto division & having recently lost another partner to a shootout he's assigned a new fresh Rookie in the form of slick-looking David Ackerman, a truly show stealing & knockout performance from the underrated Charlie Sheen. Sheen plays a young but deeply troubled Cop who lives with the tortured fact that he lost his little brother when they were young by accident but Ackerman blames himself & there for is full of guilt & sadness & Sheen masterfully portrays him. Sheen's character David Ackerman grows as the film goes, he goes from timid, scared & very unsure of himself to a raging vigilante with nothing to lose & his performance is outstanding. Ackerman reaches boiling point & then he goes crazy & those moments are the best of the movie, I can't say enough about how awesome Sheen is in this movie.

David Ackerman is my favourite movie cop ever, Sheen nailed the role to perfection & is actually one of the best & most underrated action stars of the 90's.

Eastwood & Sheen make an excellent team on screen & have a great villain for the piece with the legendary Raul Julia (The Addams Family, Street Fighter) a truly fantastic actor & screen presence (RIP) & here he's suave, slimy & great fun.

The Hollywood Legend Eastwood gives another great turn as another tough & no-nonsense hard Detective, similar to his Dirty Harry personality & he directs superbly with some Awesome action scenes & fun moments sprinkled throughout. The action in The Rookie is explosive, bloody & raw. There's a brutality to the fights & shootings in this brilliantly cop thriller that makes it feel authentic & very dangerous. I would put The Rookie up there with Lethal Weapon as one of the greatest cop films ever made.

The big standout sequence/scene to me has always been the part where Sheen goes to the rough & tough dangerous biker bar & lets loose his rage as he takes on everyone in his way!!!! It's a truly Amazing action sequence & Sheen is terrific.

I've loved this old school Cop Thriller since having it on video way back in the 90's & it's like a fine wine as it gets better with age, especially during these Super hero & CGI obsessed spectacles that's taken over Cinema!!! The Rookie is a gorgeous looking movie with a sprinkle of Noir & set in a dark Los Angeles that feels very dangerous. All that complete with a fantastic old style jazz score & directed perfectly by Eastwood himself.

The Rookie is old school filmmaking with all the action cop Thriller trimmings & an Awesome cast, excellent cinematography & Awesome music, all the ingredients that make a memorable movie.

Everyone forgets how Good Charlie Sheen was back in the day!!!

Also great in Terminal Velocity, Shadow Conspiracy, The Arrival, Beyond the Law & more.

& Eastwood, well we'll never get another Eastwood & who didn't grow up on Clint Eastwood?

Eastwood along with Schwarzenegger was a household name growing up & their films were such a huge part of my movie-loving-world & childhood so i have huge Nostalgic love for Eastwood (& Schwarzenegger)

The Rookie is definitely one of my favourite cop films that i hold a big Nostalgic spot in my movie-loving-heart, i loved it on video back in the 90's & consider it one of the most underrated action thriller's of all-time.

It's clear that upon watching "The Rookie" that Clint Eastwood's heart simply was not with this project - either as a director or an actor. Possibly he only decided to do this "commercial" project so that Warner Brothers would green-light the less commercial "White Hunter Black Heart" that came out the same year. Whatever the reason, Eastwood seems to be going on autopilot in front of and behind the camera. His performance here lacks conviction, and he comes across as a cranky old man instead of a man with grit and determination. And as a director, he slips up multiple times. The action sequences are dull when they should be spectacular - the freeway chase, for example, is flat despite all the vehicles that get destroyed. The night scenes and often the interior scenes are dark and murky, making it hard to see all the details about what's going on.

And what's the deal with the dream sequence at the opening of the movie? In fact, there are a number of script boo-boos that make me surprised that Eastwood didn't demand a rewrite. Why doesn't Eastwood call for backup at the opening action sequence? Why is Raul Julia's past and motives never properly spelled out, and why is Eastwood so determined to bust him? Why do Eastwood and Sheen hardly have any real conversations between them instead of clichéd "tough cop" talk? Also, the slow-moving story at times feels like the writers were writing it as the movie was being shot, instead of using a finished screenplay. It might also explain why key actions and scenes seem to be missing from the finished product.

What really annoyed me most about "The Rookie" was all the swearing. Don't get me wrong - I use the same words in my private life, and I have seen movies I've enjoyed with plenty of swearing. But here, every curse word comes across as forced, as if a child was making this movie and gleefully adding naughty language in an effort to appear tough. It's simply not convincing. Maybe with better direction and a heavily rewritten script, it could have worked. Those things probably would have greatly improved the rest of the movie as well.

Clint Eastwood is in a class by himself. There are not many actors that can act and direct. This movie, The Rookie, is a classical example of Clint's ability to act and direct. Whether its a western or more urban such as Dirty Harry in San Frsncisco or Wes Boc in New Orleans or a Texas Ranger in A Perfect Day chasing after a hardened criminal, Kevin Costner, who's kidnapped a 7 year old boy whose mother is a Jehovah's Witness.

To attack the script and the directing and using those as a means to ridicule Mr. Eastwood as an actor and a director is wrongheaded thinking. Clint Eastwood is an American Icon. By deriding Clint Esstwood one is attacking a shining example of hard work and dedication to ones work--in this case acting.

One should view this movie for the entertainment value that the actors involved brought to us. The one actor who really struggled through this movie was Raul Julie who was struggling with his liver disease. Actors are professional and enjoy bringing us there trade for our enjoyment.

"The Rookie" 1990 is a fairly good movie, but it's not great. Strangely, both Eastwood and Sheen delivered their lines terribly: awkward, lame, and uninterested. Sonia Braga isn't all that great in this movie either. Lara Flynn Boyle is so hot, as usual, and I forgot to rate her acting. Raul Julia seems to be the only one capable of saying his lines convincingly and with menace. When a movie is loaded with great, famous actors, and they are doing badly, I am thinking someone else is to blame, and I'm looking at Clint Eastwood. Other than the stiff acting, the movie is fun to watch, and entertaining. When David finally gets mad, and goes off on a mission to rescue Nick, you find yourself saying, "It's about time!" And mentally, you feel yourself saddling up your horse. // The Bushwacker 8/28/2021.

There is simply no excuse for how bad this movie is. It would have to rate as one of the worst of all time. It is so bad, in fact, it is almost - but not - laughable. The fact that it has a relatively accomplished cast makes this all the more diappointing. Raul Julia as a German! That's just the start. Clint Eastwood's grip on police reality is completely gone here, and Charlie Sheen is just way out of his depth as a tormented rookie cop. Plus a sex interest that ain't sexy and you wind up with 0. Which is almost what I gave this film. Whatever you do, DO NOT put yourself through the torture of watching this movie - I was begging for the end after 20 mins!

A considerably generic cop movie, with some clichés and too typical characters (experience vicious policeman and his naive and idealistic young partner), mildly funny gags and not always good dialogues, and lot of action with cars, shootings and explosions. Certainly not among the best of Eastwood's films, due an uninspired shallow script, not to mention how problematic are those stories in which policemen who "bypass" law and kill surrended criminals are the heroes, and all the Latin characters are the bad guys. However, Eastwood himself is nice in his cigar-smoker character, who is indeed quite similar to other hot-headed policemen he played in his career, such as Wes Block, Frank Horrigan, Terry McCaleb, and obviously "dirty" Harry Callahan. Besides, that, the Latin criminal core duo is amazing: cold Raul Julia and gorgeous badass "Bond-girl-like" Sonia Braga. Then 25-year Charlie Sheen completes the unusual top cast by playing the role that names the movie (and his wife character, then 20-years old Lara Flynn Boyle, was beautiful and had good thrilling moments).

Eastwood should try his hardest to make this one disappear. There was nothing good about this movie at all. Nothing worked. Poor direction, no chemistry between him and Sheen, and just plain blah!!!!!! Clint made a poor choice by being involved in this one. The action sequences were not enjoyable and the rape scene was just plain stupid!! I sometimes wonder if actors recognize a dog prior to the release. I am sure this one was doomed from the start. I cannot see how this one made any money at the box office at all. If it did I am sure it was because of the names involved. I would not waste the time or money on this one. Clint has always been my favorite and everyone is entitled to one bad movie. This one fits the bill. If you rent The Rookie make sure it's the baseball movie with Dennis Quaid!!!!!!

Don't say this movie is bad, because it is not. You'll enjoy it if you just want some good 2 h time with a great cast. Good action scenes in it also. It's nothing you have not seen before perhaps bit this one is underrated and sadly forgotten by many.

Somebody gave Clint Eastwood a big budget and thought let's make this an all out action/exploitation picture. I can't believe a great director like Clint Eastwood made this film. I guess he wanted to have some fun, but he did it at the expense of his fans thinking this would be a "good" picture. As an exploitation picture it is fine, as an action/comedy it is pretty flat.

What a cool, once in a lifetime duo pairing, of two great box office stars, in a refreshing CE actioner, which stands alone. Though the story is a bit of a bummer, as to it's car theft premise, it's a more professional execution of car theft story, which makes for a smarter. Polished one. The two team baddies, Julia and Braga are wonderful, Julia, splendid as two bad asses you don't want to cross, who run a powerful and successful operation. Julia is the object figure of Eastwood's obsessive vengeance, with his partner set up, and killed. Enter new rookie cop, Sheen who's really good here, partnered with Eastwood's Nick Pulovski, and of course (cliche alert) Clint's not happy about it, but soon accepts the situation. We have a nice knuckle wrestle grap between the two, Clint's eye, twitching afterwards, and some nice bar room brawling, and car stunt action. Sheen is really fun in this and like his character in Fixing The Shadow, he's forced to contront his past, which has been eating him up alive. A familiar Scarface face, is fun to watch as their police captain. Braga is one of the best female nasties in a long time, where, Clint's forced to endure a bitter sweet raping. All in all, The Rookie rises above the normal actioners, placing it as a fine action drama, and in no way a bad movie, which ulimately delivers.

The Rookie is better than some of the reviews on here suggest . While not the best Eastwood cop / action movie, or the best buddy cop action/ comedy . The Rookie is still enjoyable , well performed and well cast. Eastwood and Sheen had good chemistry and Raul Julia did a nice job as the villain . The action and stunts are in abundance here. A little overdone for an Eastwood film . However, this is very comparable to the other action films of this period. The Rookie is fast, furious and funny . It is not the best movie of its type , but I enjoyed it much more than The Dead Pool (my least favorite Eastwood film ). The Rookie has more in common with Lethal Weapon and other 80's action movies than Dirty Harry. Good for the genre and worth watching.

Humdrum, cliched actioner offers nothing we haven't seen before. If Eastwood (who has a unique presence, even in this mediocre role) wasn't around, it would be almost unwatchable. But the moral "lessons" of the film are even more annoying than its cliches: it seems to suggest that a "boy" becomes a "real MAN" only when he learns how to punch and kill people.