The Angry Police Captain: The Movie Cop’s Greatest Foil

Will Perkins
·Blogger

trading in Hong Kong In this week's "22 Jump Street," Ice Cube reprises the role of Captain Dickson, continuing the proud Hollywood tradition of police bosses with serious rage issues -- and little to no respect for their officers. As any good angry police captain should, Dickson again makes life a living hell for undercover detectives Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum).

The hilarious role puts Cube in very good company. Here are a few of the most memorable angry police captains to ever grace the silver screen.

“Dirty Harry” (1971) – The Mayor (John Vernon)

online trading Though not technically a police captain, the Mayor from the original “Dirty Harry”(memorably played by Canadian actor John Vernon) definitely fits the mold of the angry superior making life difficult for his heroic underling. In this case, that underling is rough and tumble Police Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), who reports directly to the San Francisco mayor on his efforts to catch the feared Scorpio killer. Vernon would go on to play a similarly authoritarian figure as Dean Wormer in 1978’s “Animal House.”

“48 Hrs.” series – Captain Haden (Frank McRae)

trading online As angry police captains go, Captain Haden (Frank McRae) from the “48 Hrs.” movies is about as by-the-book as you can get. Raging? Check. Shouting? Check. Practically rooting for his underlings (Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy) to fail? Double check. McRae’s Captain Haden was so iconic that the actor actually parodied the raging role himself not once but twice, first in the “Lethal Weapon” send-up “Loaded Weapon 1” (1993) and then in action movie satire “Last Action Hero” (1993).

“Lethal Weapon” series – Captain Ed Murphy (Steve Kahan)

Captain Ed Murphy (Steve Kahan) from the “Lethal Weapon” movies is generally more exasperated than angry, but there are certainly a few occasions when the antics of Detectives Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtagh (Danny Glover) push him over the line into full-blown anger. Riggs and Murtagh are the proverbial thorn in the Cap’s side for the entire series, a fact made all the more hilarious when Murphy is forced to promote both Riggs and Murtagh to the rank of Captain in “Lethal Weapon 4.”

“Die Hard” (1988) - Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson (Paul Gleason)

Essentially the law enforcement version of his Vice Principal character from “The Breakfast Club,” Paul Gleason’s portrayal of the self-righteous Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson in “Die Hard” is one of the most memorable angry police captains ever put to film. Robinson’s decision to repeatedly ignore the advice of John McClane (Bruce Willis) costs numerous lives and makes the Nakatomi Plaza hostage crisis far worse than it needed to be. Then, after basically screwing up for the entire movie, Robinson has the audacity to chew out hero cop McClane for all the damage he caused.

“Die Hard 2” (1990) - Capt. Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz)

It wouldn’t be a “Die Hard” movie if everyone – including the supposed good guys – weren’t against John McClane. In McClane’s second adventure “Die Hard 2,” he butts heads with Dulles Airport Police Captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) over how to best foil terrorists who have taken over the terminal. Lorenzo is unimpressed by McClane’s tactics and stands in our hero’s way at every possible opportunity.

“Point Break” (1991) – FBI Agent Ben Harp (John C. McGinley)

No thanks to suspender-wearing FBI brass Ben Harp (John C. McGinley), Agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) is successfully able to infiltrate a gang of surfer bank robbers with a penchant for surfing and skydiving. Despite their efforts, Harp doesn't think highly of Utah or his partner Agent Pappas (Gary Busey), taking every opportunity to talk down to, chew out, or humiliate the two. After a particularly intense shouting match that results in Utah being arrested, Pappa teaches Harp a much-needed lesson in how to respect his elders with a well-earned punch to the face.

“Bad Boys” series – Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano)

Nobody does angry quite like actor Joe Pantoliano. There’s something very believable about his on-screen rage, particularly when it’s being directed at co-stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in “Bad Boys” (1995) and “Bad Boys II” (2003). As the eternally irritated Captain Howard, Pantoliano spends most of his screen time yelling at the destruction-prone detectives, frequently complaining about the amount of paper work they create for him. While the role is mostly an homage to the angry police captains of the past, Pantoliano deserves special praise for the passion he brings to the role. It's far more effort than these Michael Bay-directed movies deserve.

“Bon Cop, Bad Cop” (2006) – Captain Leboeuf (Pierre Lebeau)

The Quebecois answer to all of the previously listed angry police captains, “Bon Cop, Bad Cop”’s Captain Leboeuf (Pierre Lebeau) is hilariously irate in both French and English. His attempts to scold the bilingual Detectives Bouchard (Patrick Huard) and Ward (Colm Feore) repeatedly fall flat due to his humorous difficulties with the English language.

Though the angry police captain role is pretty much a parody of itself at this point, the tried and true trope isn't going anywhere. As long as there are action movies about police officers, so too will there be police captains ready to shout and rage when things don't work out.

"22 Jump Street" blasts into theatres on June 13.

Latest Stories

  • 5 micro-trends that defined 2020’s gardening craze

    Angud Bhalla, co-founder of Plant People, looks back on the key moments of 2020's plantdemic trend.

  • 5 most important fitness trends of 2020

    It was a year of disappointments. Here’s how it played out for fitness freaks. Presenting, 2020 in fitness

  • Charles Barkley says Kyrie Irving's not 'the smartest guy in the room'

    Charles Barkley gave an impassioned voice to Kyrie Irving's critics on Thursday.

  • Quebec court grants Ottawa third extension to deal with revamped assisted-dying law

    A Quebec judge has granted the federal government another delay in bringing medical assistance in dying legislation in line with a ruling from the province's Superior Court.This time around, Ottawa asked for — and received — until Feb. 26, a deadline that gives Parliament just over two more months to pass legislation that would expand access to doctor-assisted death in Quebec and the rest of Canada.The move comes as the government's representative in the Senate, Sen. Marc Gold, conceded Thursday the upper house won't finish its consideration of Bill C-7 until mid-February — long past the previous court-imposed deadline that was set to expire Friday.Senators wrapped up opening debate on the bill Thursday, but it must now be scrutinized by the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee before being sent back to the chamber for final debate and possible amendments.In a statement, Gold said he had hoped the Senate could finish dealing with the bill before the previous deadline."Because the Senate received the bill so late in the calendar, fast-tracking Bill C-7 through all stages by December 18 would have required the unanimous consent of all senators,'' he said."But given the significance of this legislation, senators have expressed a legitimate desire to fulfil their constitutional role of sober second thought."The bill is intended to bring the law into compliance with a September 2019 court ruling. Quebec Superior Court Justice Christine Baudouin struck down a provision in the law that allows medically assisted death only for those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable. She gave the government six months to bring the law into compliance with her ruling, but the court later agreed to two extensions, given the disruptions to Parliament caused by last fall's election and the COVID-19 pandemic.A similar provision in the Quebec law was dropped ahead of the initial March deadline.Quebec Superior Court Justice Martin F. Sheehan granted the new extension Thursday afternoon after hearing the request from the federal government in Montreal.The federal government once again pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed the work of Parliament, to justify its latest request.The delay in implementing the court ruling has meant those who are not near death still cannot directly request the help of a doctor to end their life.They could go to court to be individually authorized to obtain medical assistance in dying, a possibility that Baudouin gave in her judgment last fall, but it means they must pay the associated legal costs.Sheehan asked federal lawyer David Lucas on Thursday morning if the government had anything to offer to ease the burden on these people, such as by reimbursing their legal costs.Asked about the matter later Thursday, before the ruling was out, federal Justice Minister David Lametti said the government would pay lawyers' fees and reasonable court expenses for those who would have to head to court to seek such permission.This commitment is included in Sheehan's decision.Conservative justice critic Rob Moore said the federal government should have appealed the Quebec court decision last fall instead of trying to rush through the changes now.“By refusing to appeal the court decision, then proroguing Parliament and stalling on the reintroduction of C-7, the Liberals have failed to meet their target. In their arrogance, the Liberals expected Parliament to simply rubber-stamp this bill on life-and-death," he said in a statement Thursday.He added the Conservatives have put forward amendments he said would have dealt with concerns raised by people living with disabilities. "We will continue to advocate for changes to protect the vulnerable in Canada," he said.Lametti responded to the decision Thursday night on Twitter, saying he was pleased the Quebec Superior Court granted the extension but it should never have been needed."The Conservatives' delay tactics in the House left the Senate with little time to review the legislation before the previous deadline," he said."Real people are suffering. Our focus remains the same — we will keep doing everything in our power to pass this critical bill."This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2020.The Canadian Press

  • Florida Scientist Vows To Speak COVID-19 'Truth To Power' Despite Police Raid

    "Never let the fear of retaliation temper your desire to be a good, honest person,” Rebekah Jones tells would-be whistleblowers in op ed.

  • Gossan Elects New Director at Annual Shareholders Meeting

    Winnipeg, Manitoba--(Newsfile Corp. - December 17, 2020) - Gossan Resources Limited (TSXV: GSS) (FSE: GSR) held its Annual and Special Shareholders Meeting in Winnipeg on December 15, 2020. The proposed management slate of Directors - Douglas Reeson, Hamid Mumin, James C. Campbell, and MaryAnn Mihychuk - were elected to the Board.Newly elected, the Hon. MaryAnn Mihychuk MSc, P.C., formerly a federal Minister of Employment and a Manitoba Minister of Mines, is an experienced ...

  • IOC accused of turning blind eye to China’s human rights violations by allowing Beijing to host 2022 Olympics

    Representative of rights groups met two months ago with IOC leaders but say their requests have been largely ignored

  • Research says, Kangaroos can communicate with humans

    Kowloon [Hong Kong], December 18 (ANI): A recent study by the City University of Hong Kong in collaboration with the University of Sydney has found that unlike other domesticated animals like dogs, horses, or goats; Kangaroos, which have never been domesticated can intentionally, communicate with humans.

  • The Latest: 5 Rams backups miss practice

    Five backup players missed practice with the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday after a positive COVID-19 test within the organization. Linebackers Justin Hollins and Ogbo Okoronkwo, safety Nick Scott and offensive linemen Bobby Evans and Brian Allen weren't in the workout while the Rams conducted contact tracing the further tests, coach Sean McVay said. The Rams didn't reveal which player tested positive, but Evans was listed as being absent from practice with an illness, while the other four players had a different designation on the injury report.

  • Couple ties knot, hours after bride injures back in an accident in UP's Prayagraj

    Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) [India], December 18 (ANI): Just hours after a woman injured her back in an accident, a couple tied a knot in a hospital in Prayagraj, on Thursday.

  • JP Nadda gives six-point agenda to cadres for Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birth anniversary

    New Delhi [India], December 18 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has directed all its state units to actively take part in "Good Governance Day" to celebrate former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birthday on December 25.

  • Hack against US is 'grave' threat, cybersecurity agency says

    WASHINGTON — Federal authorities expressed increased alarm Thursday about a long-undetected intrusion into U.S. and other computer systems around the globe that officials suspect was carried out by Russian hackers. The nation's cybersecurity agency warned of a “grave” risk to government and private networks. The hack compromised federal agencies and “critical infrastructure” in a sophisticated attack that was hard to detect and will be difficult to undo, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in an unusual warning message. The Department of Energy acknowledged it was among those that had been hacked. The attack, if authorities can prove it was carried out by Russia as experts believe, creates a fresh foreign policy problem for President Donald Trump in his final days in office. Trump, whose administration has been criticized for eliminating a White House cybersecurity adviser and downplaying Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, has made no public statements about the breach. President-elect Joe Biden, who inherits a thorny U.S.-Russia relationship, spoke forcefully about the hack, declaring that he and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris “will make dealing with this breach a top priority from the moment we take office.” “We need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant cyberattacks in the first place,” he said. “We will do that by, among other things, imposing substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks, including in co-ordination with our allies and partners.” “There’s a lot we don’t yet know, but what we do know is a matter of great concern,” Biden said. CISA officials did not respond to questions and so it was unclear what the agency meant by a “grave threat” or by “critical infrastructure” possibly targeted in the attack that the agency says appeared to have begun last March. Homeland Security, the agency's parent department, defines such infrastructure as any “vital” assets to the U.S. or its economy, a broad category that could include power plants and financial institutions. The agency previously said the perpetrators had used network management software from Texas-based SolarWinds t o infiltrate computer networks. Its new alert said the attackers may have used other methods, as well. Tech giant Microsoft, which has helped respond to the breach, revealed late Thursday that it had identified more than 40 government agencies, think tanks, non-governmental organizations and IT companies infiltrated by the hackers. It said four in five were in the United States — nearly half of them tech companies — with victims also in Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. “This is not ‘espionage as usual,’ even in the digital age. Instead, it represents an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world,” Microsoft said in a blog post. Over the weekend, amid reports that the Treasury and Commerce departments were breached, CISA directed all civilian agencies of the federal government to remove SolarWinds from their servers. The cybersecurity agencies of Britain and Ireland issued similar alerts. A U.S. official previously told The Associated Press that Russia-based hackers were suspected, but neither CISA nor the FBI has publicly said who is believed to be responsible. Asked whether Russia was behind the attack, the official said: “We believe so. We haven’t said that publicly yet because it isn’t 100% confirmed.” Another U.S. official, speaking Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that is under investigation, said the hack was severe and extremely damaging although the administration was not yet ready to publicly blame anyone for it. “This is looking like it’s the worst hacking case in the history of America,” the official said. “They got into everything.” At the Department of Energy, the initial investigation revealed that malware injected into its networks via a SolarWinds update has been found only on its business networks and has not affected national security operations, including the agency that manages the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, according to its statement. It said vulnerable software was disconnected from the DOE network to reduce any risk. The intentions of the perpetrators appear to be espionage and gathering information rather than destruction, according to security experts and former government officials. If so, they are now remarkably well situated. Thomas Bossert, a former Trump Homeland Security adviser, said in an opinion article in The New York Times that the U.S. should now act as if the Russian government had gained control of the networks it has penetrated. “The actual and perceived control of so many important networks could easily be used to undermine public and consumer trust in data, written communications and services,” he wrote. Members of Congress said they feared that taxpayers’ personal information could have been exposed because the IRS is part of Treasury, which used SolarWinds software. Experts involved in the hack response say the intruders are not likely interested in such data because they are intelligence agents narrowly focused on sensitive national security data — and trying to steal taxpayer info would likely set off alarms. Tom Kellermann, cybersecurity strategy chief of the software company VMware, said the hackers are now “omniscient to the operations” of federal agencies they’ve infiltrated “and there is viable concern that they might leverage destructive attacks within these agencies” now that they've been discovered. Among the business sectors scrambling to protect their systems and assess potential theft of information are defence contractors, technology companies and providers of telecommunications and the electric grid. A group led by CEOs in the electric power industry said it held a “situational awareness call” earlier this week to help electric companies and public power utilities identify whether the compromise posed a threat to their networks. And dozens of smaller institutions that seemed to have little data of interest to foreign spies were nonetheless forced to respond to the hack. The Helix Water District, which provides drinking water to the suburbs of San Diego, California, said it provided a patch to its SolarWinds software after it got an advisory the IT company sent out about the hack to about 33,000 customers Sunday. “While we do utilize SolarWinds, we are not aware of any district impacts from the security breach,” said Michelle Curtis, a spokesperson for the water district. _____ With contributions from Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Matt O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, and Frank Bajak in Boston. Ben Fox, The Associated Press

  • Nor'easter Blankets Staten Island With Snow

    Staten Island transformed into a winter wonderland on Wednesday, December 16, after Winter Storm Gail blanketed the United States’ northeast with thick snow.This footage, shot by local resident Robyn Tellefsen, captures the onset of the storm, which covered Staten Island in six-and-a-half inches of snow by the Thursday morning, according to local media. Credit: Robyn Tellefsen via Storyful

  • Jeremy Bulloch, English actor who played Boba Fett in original Star Wars trilogy, dies at 75

    Jeremy Bulloch died at a London hospital from health complications after years of living with Parkinson’s disease

  • Pelosi, McConnell to get vaccine, urge members to do same

    WASHINGTON — The top leaders of the U.S. House and Senate will be receiving the coronavirus vaccine this week, and Congress' attending physician has informed members that they are all eligible for the shots under “government continuity” guidelines.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell both said Thursday that they will get vaccinated in the next few days.Pelosi, D-Calif., is third in the line of succession for the presidency, after President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence. McConnell, R-Ky., is not in the line of succession, but as majority leader, he is in charge of running the Senate.In a statement Thursday, Pelosi said: “We must all continue to embrace testing, tracing, treatment, mask wearing and social distancing as the vaccine is being distributed. It is imperative that we ensure that the vaccine will be free and delivered in a fair, equitable manner to as many Americans as soon as possible and that we accelerate its manufacture, including by invoking the Defence Production Act.”McConnell said that as a polio survivor, he is especially aware of the “extraordinary promise of hope” vaccines offer. He said he’ll continue to wear a mask and follow other health guidelines.Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Capitol physician, sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to make appointments with his office to be vaccinated.“Once we have completed the vaccination of the Members, we will follow a process to identify the continuity-essential staff members,” Monahan said, adding that his office would continue with appointments “until the small vaccine supply is exhausted.”The Associated Press

  • Queensland police say alleged Brisbane double-murder being investigated as 'terrorism event'

    Queensland police say alleged Brisbane double-murder being investigated as 'terrorism event'Lawyer for Raghe Abdi, who was shot dead by police on Logan Motorway on Friday, says there is no evidence he was involved in terrorism

  • Saint Louis pulls away midway through 2nd, beats N.C. State

    ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Javonte Perkins scored 20 points, Jordan Goodwin had 16 points and a season-high 15 rebounds and Saint Louis beat North Carolina State 80-69 on Thursday night.

  • 4.2-Magnitude Earthquake Hits Delhi-NCR; Twitter Erupts With Memes

    The earthquake, with a depth of five km, had its epicentre near Alwar district in Rajasthan.

  • Northern beaches Covid cluster grows to 28 as Gladys Berejiklian berates Sydneysiders over masks

    Northern beaches Covid cluster grows to 28 as Gladys Berejiklian berates Sydneysiders over masks. A further 10 cases are added to the cluster, as NSW and Victoria announce new restrictions on aircrew coronavirus quarantine

  • Lewandowski Beats Ronaldo, Messi to FIFA Best Men’s Player Award

    Lewandowski on Thursday beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to win The Best FIFA Men’s Player award.