“Edison Force” (also known as “Edison” or “Edison City” in foreign markets) is a 2005 Direct-to-DVD movie in which Justin Timberlake makes his movie starring debut as Josh Pollack. He is a cocky, ambitious journalist for the Herald Heights, a small time weekly community newspaper in the fictional city of Edison. While covering a trial regarding a drug bust by Edison’s special police task force F.R.A.T. he notices something odd which leads him to a discovery of massive corruption of F.R.A.T., the local businesses and the local government.

Originally scheduled for a theatrical release, it was pulled and turned into a Direct-to-DVD movie after poor test screening. In some senses I can see why. The movie’s name, box cover, opening monologue and first two opening scenes make it seem like the “Training Day” type of movie. In actuality, it is supposed to be a tense conspiracy thriller that doesn’t have much in the way of tension. That being said, I found this movie to be quite enjoyable and entertaining.

The movie has a very good cast featuring Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, LL Cool J, Piper Perabo, Dylan McDermott and Carey Elwes. And, while Kevin Spacey pretty much mailed in his performance and Dylan McDermott was way over top, Justin Timberlake shows he has what it takes to be a leading man. Also, Morgan Freeman gives probably my favorite performance by him in a long time as a burned out and jaded former Pulitzer Prize winning writer and photographer turned editor of the Herald Heights who is a reluctant, cold and brutally honest mentor to Pollack. 

In the end, I feel that the biggest downfall of this movie is that it tries to do too much. The scope of this project was too big and ambitious for writer/director David J. Burke to accomplish (who, until this point, had only written and directed television episodes). It tries to cram in too many genres and say too many things. One great example is the subtext that at one point F.R.A.T was needed, but it’s done in a couple of throw away lines and falls flat. The result is a fairly entertaining and solid but unspectacular film.

Rating: Matinee

Fun factor: 70%

At the time of this review’s publishing the movie can be seen for free at Crackle.com

Sincerely, THE Brian