Police Story: Gladiator School (TV Movie 1988)

Police Story: Gladiator School (TV Movie 1988). 1h 36m | Not Rated

“u0026quot;Police Storyu0026quot; was an exceptional police show from the 1970s. Unlike a traditional cop show, this one had different characters and different sorts of officers and detectives in each show….showing a gamut of different police activities. In the 1980s, a couple u0026quot;Police Storyu0026quot; made for TV movies appeared….and I assume they were attempts to revive the series which didnu0026#39;t take hold.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOfficer Chick Stacy (Robert Conrad) is an old school beat officer. In other words, while heu0026#39;s mostly a good cop, he also has his own may of handling some cases which are NOT by the book. Itu0026#39;s bad enough that his partner requests a new partner and heu0026#39;s got a long record of complaints from folks heu0026#39;s arrested stating he used excessive force.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAfter arresting a really nasty prostitute, the woman alleges that Stacy used excessive force. Soon after, she is drugged and set up in a situation where she appeared to be shooting at Stacy. He returned fire…killing her. But, because it is a set-up, her gun is missing and it appears as if Stacy murdered her!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn addition to following Officer Stacy, the film has a parallel plot–showing the Internal Affairs officers (Anthony LaPaglia and Ed Ou0026#39;Neill) working their various cases…including Stacyu0026#39;s. The pair are unusually sympathetic…unlike the stereotypical IAD cops seen on other shows.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, this is a very good film and it might have been nice to see a series. My only complaint is that there is way too much sax music in the film–so much that it was a bit annoying…but otherwise pretty good.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBy the way, this made for TV movie was directed by James Darren. I had no idea heu0026#39;d directed any shows or movies and perhaps he was chosen since he was a series regular on a cop show, u0026quot;TJ Hookeru0026quot;. I checked and was surprised at how many TV shows Darren has directed.”