‘Cop Car’ is a solid little thriller

Starring Kevin Bacon and Camryn Manheim. Directed by Jon Watts.

Rated R for strong language, violence, brief drug use. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 26 minutes.

Bottom line: It's got some thrill, but it's too long

The idea of casting Kevin Bacon as a corrupt, rural sheriff on the hunt for the two pre-teens who stole his police vehicle could make for some grade-A, B-movie, cops-ploitation fun. But director/co-writer Jon Watts plays it straight down the line in “Cop Car.” While not nearly as fuel-injected as the tag line suggests (“their first drive could be their last”), this is a solid little thriller with strong performances, most notably from Bacon himself.

Travis (James Freedman-Jackson) and Harrison (Hays Wellford) are 10-year-olds running away from home in eastern Colorado. In the middle of this high-plains desolation, they come across a police car with the driver-side door unlocked and the keys still in it. What’s a boy to do? Take it, of course.

If only they knew that Sheriff Kretzer (Bacon) was off in the woods burying a body.

From there, it’s a too-long game of cat and mouse, or cop and kid, a sort of “Boys’ Own Adventure” with murder as a possible outcome. And whatever you do, kids, don’t look in the back seat or the trunk.