"Relentless" is Judd Nelson leaving his conniving, nasty characters in films like "From the Hip" and the TV miniseries "Billionaire Boys Club" for the role of a serial killer who leaves clues for the police, hoping they'll catch and kill him.
He ultimately gets his wish - that's not giving anything away; how else can a movie like this end? - but beforehand he tracks victims in Los Angeles by looking in the phone book for people whose last names are the same as either his own first or last name.
Though Nelson's name is above the title, the focus is more on the police work of Leo Rossi, a transplanted New York cop with a family (his wife is played by Meg Foster, she of the transparent eyes), who looks for clues while the cops around him eat lunch.
He's a wise-acre detective teamed with a near-retirement veteran (Robert Loggia, "Big," "Jagged Edge"), whose dialogue is mostly about the cost of victims' apartments.
Nelson grinds his teeth, stares into a broken mirror and talks to a photo of his dad, a famous L.A. cop. Nelson failed to become a police officer because a psychiatrist felt he was unfit, so these killings are for his father, a child abuser we see in flashbacks.
Pure trash, you say? You understate.