Now that I finally got to see it I really gotta laugh at the bullshyt claims about this being a racist fantasy. There are maybe a few moments that walk the line but even then it felt more like pushing the characters as hardened souls who just don't give a shyt about anything anymore except themselves.
The opening scene is actually one of the best examples. They interrogate a Mexican drug dealer roughly by putting a boot on his head, and interrogate his girlfriend by dousing her in cold water and making her stand underneath a fan. It's the former they're suspended for because someone shot a video of it, but there's nothing in that scene you have never seen before from other 'tough cop' flicks, and nothing suggests it would have mattered to them if the dealer was white, black or Asian. They just rough him up because that's how they get shyt done, and then complain that for all the shyt they get done, they get nothing in return.
But most of the film isn't even about that, as it really is all just a way of pushing the characters into the actual plot, which is their attempt to rob a suspected out-of-town dealer of a load of cash. It is here that Zahler slowly builds into his now trademark exploitation finish, although this one features the least extravagant gore out of his three movies, but still some very good suspense.
With a final confrontation that pretty much proves the folly of the main character, the ending is also probably more Coli-approved than most people complaining in this thread will ever find out about, but that is their loss.
