THE RENEGADES

Further proof that nobody likes a cop who nails a cop.

Deputy Charlie Hood, of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, is doing a stint with Internal Affairs and hating it. “I signed up to throw the bad guys in jail,” he complains to a sympathetic ADA. When she points out to him that some bad guys wear uniforms, it’s a truth that does little to dispel his sense that things are out of kilter: Cops should never have to chase cops. On the other hand, his investigation into the murder of Terry Laws, Mr. Wonderful to his fellow officers in the LASD, seems a case of an entirely different color: Cop killers should never be allowed to breathe free air. But the case darkens dishearteningly when the victim, a champion bodybuilder and estimable citizen, turns up on the payroll of a fat cat Mexican drug lord. The partner who survives Mr. Not-So-Wonderful, slick Coleman Draper, is catnip to the ladies, a part-time peace officer who’s also a full-time stone killer. Draper doesn’t enjoy killing, but his approach to problem-solving is thoroughly lethal. All at once, Charlie realizes, he’s about to become Draper’s No. 1 problem.

The pace is leisurely and the plot a bit obvious, but Parker (L.A. Outlaws, 2008, etc.) at three-quarters effectiveness still beats most others at their best.