This is a strictly B movie that manages to successfully disguise its true identity up until the last 1/3rd of the story.
The story is nothing new - Clint Easywood, amongst others, charted the same territory of vigilante cops pulling the wrong newbie into their group in 1973's MAGNUM FORCE - but it has been spiced up with some bullet ballet that is actually more realistic than most big budget affairs produce. Overall, the photography and lighting are very professional in a gritty way, and so is the editing, which gives the movie a very polished, well-budgeted look. Still, police dramas with mediocre plots need to be carried by their characters, and while Stephen Baldwin does make an interesting hero, his shooting does more for character development than his dialogue. Tia Carrere is nice, but she comes across way too smart, and definitely way too composed, for a call-girl, and she shows virtually zero skin - an especially big disappointment in a genre film of this kind...:) If anything, the supporting characters, the 'baddies' who make up the police team, are the ones that carry you through several scenes: their action is fairly nicely choreographed, and it is a pleasure to see them die.
...but, ultimately, Scar City really fails. The first third is somewhat engaging, because the director wisely spends his time to establish the protagonists' and the antagonists' strengths and weaknesses. The second third rolls well because of all the action suddenly exploding onto the screen. In the third, though, where action and characters could be nicely pulled together into a tight, plot-driven finale, the film crumbles into a dozen silly clichés and inconsistencies instead. Why would you ask someone whether they can shoot, a few hours after they showed you their gun, telling you how they used to shoot squirrels with it? The mess is hardly mopped up by an incomplete and nonsensical ending that makes it look like the director was too tired to tie up a dozen characters and plot lines.
Still, for a slow weekday evening it is good gunplay.
