@professional_portalThe one from 1973 is where my eye keeps landing: THE SEVEN-UPS, a hard-edged detective working a kidnapping operation with ties running into New York's criminal underworld. From there the nine underrated police thrillers stack up like this. NARC (2002) sends an undercover cop back in to work a fellow officer's murder, and his partner on it is volatile. COP LAND (1997) hands a small-town sheriff a dangerous secret, and the powerful NY cops at the center of it. END OF WATCH (2012) keeps two LAPD partners in the frame until a dangerous criminal gang puts them in its sights. THE TOWN (2010): a Boston bank robber has his carefully controlled life come apart after he falls for a former hostage. CROWN VIC (2019) is one chaotic night in Los Angeles, a veteran cop taking a rookie through it. DARK BLUE (2002) puts an LAPD detective face to face with corruption inside his own department. STREET KINGS (2008) follows a troubled detective into his partner's death, and from there into a police conspiracy. PRIDE AND GLORY (2008) has a detective on murdered officers, then evidence that implicates his own family. Nine titles, one theme. Math is math.

@professional_portalThe one from 1973 is where my eye keeps landing: THE SEVEN-UPS, a hard-edged detective working a kidnapping operation with ties running into New York's criminal underworld. From there the nine underrated police thrillers stack up like this. NARC (2002) sends an undercover cop back in to work a fellow officer's murder, and his partner on it is volatile. COP LAND (1997) hands a small-town sheriff a dangerous secret, and the powerful NY cops at the center of it. END OF WATCH (2012) keeps two LAPD partners in the frame until a dangerous criminal gang puts them in its sights. THE TOWN (2010): a Boston bank robber has his carefully controlled life come apart after he falls for a former hostage. CROWN VIC (2019) is one chaotic night in Los Angeles, a veteran cop taking a rookie through it. DARK BLUE (2002) puts an LAPD detective face to face with corruption inside his own department. STREET KINGS (2008) follows a troubled detective into his partner's death, and from there into a police conspiracy. PRIDE AND GLORY (2008) has a detective on murdered officers, then evidence that implicates his own family. Nine titles, one theme. Math is math.