A Cops and Robbers Story Documentary Review, Corey Pegues Goes From Gangster to Police

The documentary A Cops and Robbers Story is an autobiographical film about Corey Pegues. A gangster in New York during the 1980s, an incident with a rival nearly turns him into a killer. Fortunately, a jammed gun alters the direction of his life. He joins the military and afterward getting out he becomes a police officer in New York. Pegues rises through the ranks all the while no one knows much about his past.

That’s A Cops and Robbers Story in a nutshell. It’s pretty simple. There are a lot of cops. There isn’t much robber.

Let’s go into whether or not this documentary is a winner or loser.

What was good about A Cops and Robbers Story

The story definitely is interesting. Anyone who can turn their life around the way Pegues does is worth writing a book about. And he did. This film, however, felt more like a small taste of what’s actually in the book. I came away thinking this was more of a promotional tool to sell books because frankly, there wasn’t anything that specific about his time as a gangster or police officer that was interesting.

A Cops and Robbers Story was a well-made film with a wide selection of interviewees. Where it lost me was its purpose. This felt like a Transformers cartoon made to sell toys. A Cops and Robbers Story was definitely made to sell Pegues’ book.

What could have made A Cops and Robbers Story better

This documentary needed to get into what his life as a gang member and a cop was all about. We get very little of it. Instead, the documentary seemed to spin in circles without really saying much of anything at all. Pegues was a very outspoken member of his community while in law enforcement. This or pretty much any other angle would have helped this documentary be far more memorable than it was.

A Cops and Robbers Story didn’t make gang life seem so tough nor did it put all that much fear in Pegues getting exposed for being an ex-gang member. The documentary is like an in-law that has moved into your home and doesn’t contribute. They’re just there not really doing any good or bad.

I think this documentary spent too much time on the reenactments of scenes from the past. They came out as mostly unnecessary moments. Many were re-explanations of things other people had already said on camera.

Pegues led a fascinating life. This documentary fails to do him any justice. There are no twists. There are no scares. A story with as much substance as this needed to be far better.

Is A Cops and Robbers Story worth watching?

Thumbs down for this. I thought it started off well then never improved. The acting scenes, as unnecessary as they were, distracted from the interviews. I think doing one or the other would’ve made this a much better film. Instead, the whole part about how he went from being a gangster to a cop kept getting repeated over and over again. A documentary like this needed to bring me to the edge of my seat. It didn’t come close.

Overall Score: 3 out of 10

I really wanted to like this documentary but as each minute passed by I grew more bored with it. Hopefully it sold some books.