First layer2024.

Screenplay and direction: Uwe Boll.
Starring Gino Anthony Pesi, Kristen Renton, James McMenamin, Willie C. Carpenter, Daniel Sauli, Brandi Bravo, Garry Pastore, Kwabena Ampofo, Onye Eme-Akwari, Tia Dionne Hodge, Cate Bottiglione, Tom Ukah, Aaron Berg, Michael Wren Gucciardo, Frank Muni, Holland Smith, Ivo Velon and Christian Pastore.

SUMMARY:

NYPD veteran Mike and rookie Angela tackle a risky day on New York’s toughest streets, plunging headfirst into a maelstrom of danger and action. As they navigate dangerous encounters, they’re beset by adrenaline-fueled chases and unexpected threats. Amid the chaos, intense challenges forge unbreakable bonds.

Not only is First layer (the latest from notorious filmmaker Uwe Boll, forever synonymous with botching video game adaptations and challenging critics to boxing matches over legitimately bad reviews) is a nihilistic, copagandist exercise that’s kind of shallow in its relentlessness. Worse, the film essentially does everything it can to reinforce its belief that negative stereotypes are mostly accurate, and pulls out a childish tirade against woke culture to boot.

A black man pulls out a gun during a routine speeding stop while trying to get his partner, who has just gone into labor, to the hospital. But the humiliation doesn’t end there. After the scuffle, drugs are found in the vehicle. If this film were as cynical as it is, it would still be pretty bad, but rest assured, it gets worse. Thankfully, the attempts at shock never reach the level of insult; Uwe Boll, after all his years of making terrible films, is still nowhere near talented enough to provoke a heated reaction.

As the title suggests, the film is about a rookie’s first shift, on the police force. It’s Angela’s (Kristen Renton) first day on the job (and she’s relatively new to New York, coming from Atlanta). She teams up with eye-rollingly nervous veteran Deo (Gino Anthony Pesi), who has lost all faith in humanity and, despite its tourist attractions, sees the city as nothing more than a cesspool of crime. Again, the next 85 minutes seem to be there to prove his point with grim depictions of crimes ranging from gang-related double murders (characters who hilariously speak like embarrassing caricatures) to fathers with PTSD, substance abuse, and domestic violence. He is not a people person, although he does have an affinity for dogs, as seen when he quickly takes care of one following his owner who suffers a fright in a grocery store that results in a three-week hospital stay.

As for Angela, her character is portrayed as completely unsuitable for the job; she repeatedly livestreams on TikTok while at work (which Deo condescendingly refers to as “click-clack” because that passes as a joke here), has several geography-related questions, unprofessionally pries into his personal life at every turn, and overall comes across as more of a vain influencer than someone with a vested, committed interest in protecting the community.

Technically, it’s serviceable in action, depicted in a sequence that feels like it’s straight out of a typical video game side quest; Deo tries to convince a crazed man to put down his knife after he’s already cut himself multiple times, while Angela maneuvers clockwise, stopping and using crates for cover like it’s a third-person action-adventure game. Eventually, she makes it far enough behind him to stun him with a stun gun, which makes you feel like you should get an award for solving the crisis non-lethally.

Their deadly boring conversations and crime scenes are sloppily interspersed with glimpses of these situations before they happen, or sometimes they’re left hanging until Uwe Boll finally decides to work them into the layer. Apparently a selling point here (according to Uwe Boll’s comment on the private screening link, something I’ve never seen a filmmaker do before) is that the film was shot on various original locations throughout New York, which is an empty claim considering nothing compelling was done with the landmarks or geography here.

The dialogue is often stilted and nothing here comes across as human or raw, making the crimes easier to stomach than the material suggests. As for the bond between the cops, Angela urges Deo to give humanity a second chance. This is something the film actively tries to discourage Deo from doing until he does, sending a mixed message that makes no sense considering how much horror he experiences in a single day. Even more horrifying, though, is that Uwe Boll thinks he has the goodwill of Kevin Costner and in the end First layer with a trailer for the sequel. Now that’s a reason for nihilism.

Assessment of the flickering myth – Film: ★ / Cinema: ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the reviews editor at Flickering Myth. Find new reviews here, follow me Þjórsárdalur or Letterboxd, or email me at [email protected]

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