No one involved in Jericho Ridge thinks they’re making art, but neither do they think they’re making trash. It’s the sort of movie that keeps an industry alive – well made, well acted, decent-enough if familiar story and a satisfying conclusion all round, especially if you like happy endings served with lashings of gory violence.
The plot is a slight steal from Assault on Precinct 13 – cops under siege on their own turf – but first it sets up its underdog hero as a person who has a lot to get out from under.
Nikki Amuka-Bird plays smalltown cop Tabby Temple, a smart and resourceful deputy who’s recently had her rank reduced because of some indiscretion and is back to work in spite of the fact that she has a broken ankle and is wearing a boot, because she’s bored sitting at home.
Tabby has an antsy son who might be a meth dealer. She’s overdoing the pain meds. She’s not exactly on top of her game. On the night the bad men come to play, while her fellow officers are out on a difficult arrest, there are further burdens to contend with. She is being repeatedly called by an upstanding citizen concerned that young people are having a good time and alcohol might be involved. Tabby has no gun. Then she does have a gun but the bullets are the wrong calibre and it’s likely to blow off the hand of whoever uses it. Underdog, in a corner, on her own, got it?
For reasons too boring to explain I watched most of this film in a very bright room and it was definitely not the way to watch it. Because once the heavily armed bad guys show up and try to break into the sheriff’s station where Tabby is all on her own everything shifts from being fairly visible to very murky indeed.
Things get very dark, both in emotional temperature and the number of lights being used on the set. It works in the film’s favour and marks out debut director Will Gilbey as someone who likes to take a risk and is happy to give his cinematographer (Ruarí O’Brien) his head. Gilbey was an editor before taking to directing. Unsurprisingly, the editing is good, but so is the direction and Gilbey is good at staging gun fights. He’s also keen on emphasising the enormous power of high-velocity weapons. When people get hit by a bullet in Jericho Ridge they are knocked sideways or onto the floor. You can feel the whump on impact.
Because there is mother-son tension at the beginning, it seems absolutely obvious that it must somehow be resolved before the end. And that’s how it pans out, with Tabby hobbling on her bad ankle and defending herself, the sheriff’s station and errant son Monty (Zack Morris) in the movie’s dark second half – the assault – and earning her son’s respect with her demonstration of smarts and grit. He, Mom ain’t such a loser.
Amuka-Bird is very good at all of it, but most of all does determined very well. That’s the other relevant thing about this genre-familiar movie – how well it is cast. Simon Kunz as the Sheriff, Chris Reilly as Chief Deputy and Solly McLeod as a plain old Deputy are rounded characters in next-to-no screen time – decent, impetuous and dumb as bread respectively. Philipp Christopher as a bad guy who arrives at the station posing as a locksmith has great physical presence and exudes menace. As does Aidan Kelly, as the Mr Big who’s co-ordinating this attack from the safety of his mansion.
Did I mention the violence is quite savage? It’s one of the things that mark this movie out from the scores of very similar movies in which shots are fired and it all seems not to matter too much. I see from the IMDb that Gilbey has another action movie in the works. I’m really looking forward to it.
Jericho Ridge – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2025
