Cop Land

Everywhere the camera turns in this tense and volatile drama, it finds enough interest for a truckload of conventional Hollywood fare. Whatever its limitations, Cop Land has talent to burn.

Cop Land emerges as a first-rate morality play in the form of an effective, if occasionally unwieldy, crime drama.

Branching out in a bold new direction, Stallone is quietly devastating. James Mangold has directed Cop Land from his own ardent, audacious script, and despite some draggy, overdeliberate moments, it's the strongest piece of material to come Stallone's way since he invented himself as Rocky 21 years ago.

It's formulaic, but it sticks to a classic Western formula instead of a cartoonish blockbuster one.

Writer-director James Mangold has surrounded Stallone with an exceptional ensemble cast, and Sly is smart enough to let the actors do the acting.

Cop Land presents a fairly involved plot, and Mangold is not equipped to do more than blurt all the information onto the screen and let the nuances settle where they may.

It's a shame when an actor like Sylvester Stallone, who's always at his most appealing when he just hunkers down and lets himself be a big galoot, feels he has to make a bid for respectability.

A brilliant cast and an sharp, literate script make this one of the more overlooked films of the 90's. Stallone's morose and overweight small-town sheriff is a clever and well executed casting choice and he serves the film well by doing much with his body language and letting the other actors do the more fiery displays of cop-on-the-edge theatrics. Ray Liotta gets a part worthy of his brand of intensity and the mash up of High Noon meets Goodfellas is very effective. Too many story arcs spoil the cleanliness of the narrative for many but repeated viewings (of the directors cut preferably which has a valuable 12 extra minutes) show that most of it works itself out. The finale is exceptional in how it allows Stallone to be heroic but in a tired, bloody and almost defeated fashion. Being the hero probably isn't that fun sometimes and he realizes that.

Aside from the mostly incredible cast, this movie is excellent on its own merit. Its a slow moving story about corruption, in this case, within the police force in New York and how one good cop influenced others who were morally struggling with the activities they saw happening around them. It also plays on how good intentions can sometimes lead to complacency even in light of wrong doing. The movie spends most of its time on characterization which makes the transition believable by the end. There are some holes in the movie which stop me from rating it higher such as the handling of the cop in hiding by both sides... i mean... why would you lock him up in such an obvious place and leave him alone when you know every cop is after him? Why did the corrupt cops not handcuff their enemies when they had the chance? Stuff like that. But again, this movie is less about the plot than it is about the characters and their internal struggles so the plot holes do not detract from the movie very much. Overall an enjoyable movie and a great acting job from many very famous actors.

Stacked with big names and the outcome is a competent action-thriller but nothing special.

Cop Land is an interesting little flick from director James Mangold. Focusing on the criminal element within a cop safe haven in New Jersey, the major problem facing Cop Land deals with its plot. Far too typical, it feels like a cop procedural at times and, even worse, it is incredibly meandering in the middle with pointless subplots. That said, it is still a very entertaining film with a great performance from Sylvester Stallone, as well as from the rest of the cast. The narration is unnecessary and the neat/tidy ending is beyond off-putting. However, the acting is superb here and this is the film's major plus side. That aside though, things fall apart quite frequently here and Mangold is oh too willing to tell a typical cop story that would be fitting as an episode of NYPD Blue or one of the many other cop shows out there. That said, Cop Land is not expressly bad and is an entertaining little film that has something to say about cops being above the law. The entertainment value and acting save Cop Land from being a disaster.

Les flics pourris, corrompus, il y en a, c'est certain mais on a beaucoup de mal ici à croire à ce salmigondis mal foutu d'invraisemblances qui servent de prétexte à un agenda de social justice warrior à la godille, dans le seul but de décrédibiliser une profession tout entière. D'autres films ont bien mieux montré et démontré la corruption sans sombrer dans le manichéisme réducteur et le procès à charge de ce Copland, décidément bien maladroit et dont on entend et voit les gros sabots venir à des kilomètres à la ronde. Pour autant, le film est court et on ne s'y ennuie pas, la distribution est soignée et aligne des pointures, qu'elles soient des premiers ou des seconds couteaux... à l'exception cependant du premier rôle incarné par Sylvestre Beuhar qui recycle là son personnage de Rocky désoeuvré au regard de chien battu. Et même là, le scénario se tire une balle dans le pied puisqu'au lieu de nous présenter ce "looser magnifique" comme ce qu'il est, il en fait un "héros" à moitié sourd qui a sauvé un tel ou une telle dans la "rivière" et patati et patata... Faudrait quand même pas nous prendre pour des canards sauvages non plus parce qu'on le voit bien que le film se fout de notre gueule : comment croire un tel ramassis de conneries ? Tout cela est bien dommage, car dans le fond, on pouvait en tirer quelque chose d'intéressant avec un minimum de recul... et d'intelligence. On se retrouve juste avec un film pro-racaille et anti-flics, traité par dessus la jambe.