Like Uwe Boll's BloodRayne, this is one of those films that you see the casting listing for and instantly scratch your head as you wonder what some of these actors are doing in this film. Seeing L. L. Cool J and Justin Timberlake in a straight to video b-level action film isn't really a shock but when they're cast alongside respected actors like Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman you kind of have to wonder just what happened this time out.

The uber-macho Timberlake plays Pollack, a newspaper reporter who isn't afraid to dig deep to uncover the truth behind what's happening on a higher level of the local government in the city of Edison. While researching a few loose ends, he starts to uncover a far reaching corruption scandal that runs throughout the police department and, being the ballsy reporter that he is, he figures he should blow the whistle on it and set things right but he's not quite sure how to do it. While sitting in on a court case one day, he sees the man on the stand give props to an honest cop named Deed (L. L. Cool J) and after the trial is over, he tracks him down to try and get his help. Deed and his partner, Lazerov (Dylan McDermott), don't want any part in his scheme and they blow him off.

Frustrated, he's unsure what to do and so he sits down at his computer and starts writing a story for the paper. Unfortunately, Pollack doesn't have the cold hard facts needed for the paper to print his allegations and soon he finds himself on the receiving end of a pink slip courtesy of his boss, Ashford (Morgan Freeman). He later decides to talk things over with Ashford and see if he can bring him on board to help out, but no dice, Ashford doesn't want anything to do with him either.

Eventually Pollack is able to enlist some help from the local district attorney, Riegert (Cary Elwes) who assigns a super sleuth named Wallace (Kevin Spacey) to the case and it turns out that the special elite division of the police department have been killing drug dealers and stealing the goods. Deed is in this division but he's an honest man who just wants to get it on with his hot girlfriend Maria (Roselyn Sanchez) and serve the public trust. Soon he and Pollack and pulled in deeper than either one could imagine and it isn't long before things start to get dangerous for our heroes.

Borrowing fairly heavily from Training Day at times, Edison Force isn't a horrible film, at least in terms of how it tells its story. There's enough going on and enough plot twists to keep things interesting on that level and if it weren't for a few major flaws, this might have been an enjoyable, if derivative, cop thriller. Sadly, the acting and the dialogue in this film is just bad. It's all well and good to put talented actors like Spacey, Freeman, McDermott and Elwes in your film but when you've got them delivering dialogue that almost sounds like self parody, you've got a problem. The villains in this movie have such inane lines that you can't help but laugh at them and the heroes are so macho that you can't help but giggle. Add to that the fact that L. L. Cool J isn't a particularly good actor and that Justin Timberlake is completely wrong for his part and you can see how this one goes downhill fast. He's too young looking for the part, he's not believable as a tough reporter type, and quite frankly he's annoying.

In terms of action and suspense, there are a few decent scenes here but they too are brought down by some bad dialogue and ropey performances. Just as things start to get a little intense, Timberlake pops up and instead of being on the edge of your seat you try and keep yourself from snickering to yourself. That's not to say he can't get better as an actor, it's just that he's so easily associated with his pop star persona that when you see him on screen you half way expect him to start dancing and his casting here seems to be nothing more than a novelty rather than what most of us would consider a wise decision.

Parts of the film work on a camp level and as a b-movie this could have been a lot worse, but that again is part of the problem, in that if it had been worse the film may have had enough unintentionally funny moments to make it enjoyable – even on that level, however, Edison Force fails to deliver. The whole thing stinks of mediocrity and it's not surprising in the least that it was shelved instead of being released to theaters before ultimately being dumped onto DVD to be lost among the horde.

Video:

The picture is presented in a pretty good-looking 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer (mastered in high definition, so says the packaging). There are some mild compression artifacts present during a couple of the darker scenes, as well as some mild edge enhancement but none of it is overly severe. Colors look pretty bold and robust without coming across as overcooked except for a few of the shoot out and action scenes where they've been intentionally muted, and the flesh tones in the film remain life like without turning too pink or too orange. It isn't a perfect transfer with the aforementioned minor authoring issues, but there isn't any print damage worth complaining about (the image is almost pristine in that regard). The movie looks very good. A 1.33.1 fullframe version of the movie is also included on the other side of the disc but it messes with the compositions pretty severely – the widescreen option is the one to go with.