Review of Cop Land (1997) by Joseph M — 03 Oct 2009

I don't hear people talk about this movie much, so I should review it. It's directed by the underrated James Mangold and it has a stellar cast, so it deserves to be remembered. The story takes place in a suburban New Jersey town where New York policemen take care of much of the corruption in town while the sheriff, played surprisingly excellently by Sylvester Stallone, doesn't have a major involvement.

When an officer, played by Michael Rapaport, accidentally kills two unarmed teenagers, other officers who are close to him, played by Harvey Keitel and Robert Patrick, help him fake his own death so he won't have to face the consequences and be assisted in creating a new identity for him.

Soon, an I.A. lieutenant, played by the always great Robert De Niro, gets a hold of the sheriff and tells him that he should take advantage of this case to make himself more well known and in control, the sheriff does as he's told, creating tension and excitement in this very rich story.

Doesn't the cast sound great already? Well, that's not everyone. The sheriff's close friend is played by Ray Liotta, two of the sheriff's deputies are played by Janeane Garofalo and Noah Emmerich, John Spencer plays another sergeant, Cathy Moriarty plays Keitel's wife, Peter Berg plays an officer, and even Edie Falco and Method Man have important appearances in it.

To think that all these characters are brought together so well by no other than Sylvester Stallone in the lead. If it was a movie with all these characters and no Stallone, it would have been unbalanced.

Stallone not only is the main reason this story, with its few moments of ambiguity, works so terrifically, but he gives his best performance since Rocky. This is a must-see for fans of Stallone as well as anyone else in this movie.