Spidersecu
Don't Believe the Hype
Borgarkeri
A bit overrated, but still an amazing film
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Bot_feeder
This is one of the best crime dramas i have ever seen. It has decent ratings, but deserves higher.
bkoganbing
In their only joint film Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro star in Cop Land, a story about Garrison, New Jersey a small town where an overabundance of NYPD officers reside. So much so that the place is called Cop Land and they have the run of the place.As the official law in Cop Land the boys in blue have selected a wannabe. Sylvester Stallone who lost the hearing in one ear saving a drowning woman Annabella Sciorra is the police chief. Other than rescuing cats and issuing speeding tickets, but never to the NYPD residents of his town all Stallone does is stand in awe of the people who have the career he wanted.This whole set up comes tumbling down during a shootout at the George Washington Bridge where Michael Rappaport shoots two black teens, two stupid ones I might add who point something at him he mistakes for an automatic weapon. The NYPD citizens of Cop Land do what they can to cover up the incident, but it all blows up in their faces.Robert DeNiro who is an internal affairs detective has been looking into the cop residents of Garrison for some time. He tries to recruit Stallone, but Stallone has to see for himself what his 'friends' are really like.Stallone does one of the best acting jobs in his career. He most assuredly is not playing super hero Rambo or even working class hero Rocky in this. He's a flawed man physically and emotionally and the Garrison NYPD colony don't take him seriously at all. That's part of their downfall.Besides those already mentioned I would single out Harvey Keitel as the unofficial head of the Garrison cop colony. The more the story unfolds the more frightening Keitel becomes. Cathy Moriarty-Gentile as Keitel's abused wife, Ray Liotta who develops a conscience about what is going on and Frank Vincent as the police union head who is the ultimate target in the Cop Land probe from Internal Affairs.But it's Stallone who is the real revelation here. It's a different Sly than fans of Rocky and Rambo know.
luke-a-mcgowan
There's so much I want to hate and love about Cop Land equally that its the most deserving of a 5/10 score I've ever seen. To borrow from Rita Kempley's review, Cop Land is so full of characters and plots clamouring for the audience's attention that its director should have been traded for a traffic cop. Then we would have had a semblance of balance.Stallone is the half-deaf local sheriff of a small New Jersey town inhabited mostly by New York cops. One of the strongest attributes of the film is the subtle acting and natural interactions between the characters. All the cops talk to Freddie like he's a bum who they let pretend he's in charge so he can have a turn but no one actually respects. Stallone (40 pounds pudgier than usual) ambles around slowly, with no self-esteem and even less authority. It is an absolutely masterful performance by Stallone (his best when he's not playing Rocky Balboa). The one scene where he shouts and "acts" is actually weaker than the sweeter, quieter moments of him just going around being a sheriff. It speaks a great deal about the subtlety of acting.Harvey Keitel, on the other end of the spectrum, could be a man ten feet tall. His authority is unquestionable, his presence intimidating. Cop Land has got such an incredible cast on its hands that no one would even begin to know what to do with them all, and indeed James Mangold doesn't know what to do. Its almost as if characters were created because they needed to give these great actors something to do. The characters played by great actors Robert Patrick and John Spencer could have been combined into one alongside Arthur Nascarella's unmemorable character. Ray Liotta is such a strong performance that he tends to overshadow Stallone and crowd this ostensible main character out of his own movie. Liotta's character is never fully explained and becomes rather redundant. None of the acting in Cop Land is bad, however, and many of the actors manage to make a huge mark with their miniscule parts - most notably Paul Calderon and Janeane Garofalo. However, I did find Michael Rapaport's performance to be very annoying and below the quality worthy of this cast for such an important character.James Mangold's direction and script both feature some average choices. The subplot about Figgsy's house burning down provides little to the story and actually leaves a big gaping hole in Liotta's performance when he doesn't show any grief. Rappaport's character makes utterly stupid decisions like peeking out of the back of a car in plain view of people who think he's dead. The idea of a man everyone thinks is dead openly attending a giant party has the potential to be a subtle message on how corrupt the cops are and arrogant about getting away with it, but ends up being annoyingly naive on everyone's part. There's one inspired moment when Stallone tries to escort Superboy to the station (which Mangold would recreate even better in 3:10 to Yuma 10 years later) which is then ruined by the tensionless slow- motion action sequence that finishes the film. Throughout the film, Howard Shore's music is wonderful, especially his use of violins.Stallone deserves to be proud of the performance he gives, but with all the cast and talent assembled, Cop Land deserved to be great. What we get is okay.
jb0579
I never give a movie a "10", and I chuckle when people do. And I don't talk about plot, you can find that elsewhere. Rather, I talk about a film's merit, and there is plenty to be said here. Bar far, I think, Stallone's best work, this film is complex on many levels as a little of things are at play here: the disappointment of a sheriff who feels he's left his potential behind him, the departmental bickering between municipalities and different precincts, and the disparity between clean cops and crooked ones to name a few. As the movie grooves on, you see just how brilliant the casting was here as you forget guys like Ray Liotta and Jason Patrick aren't really cops. Rappaport was believable using his real New York accent, DeNiro delivers as always, but it's Stallone who steals the show as the overweight, tired and clean sheriff who takes heat from his crooked cop counterparts. Direction was wonderful, cinematography wonderful, and beautifully lit as well. Not a lot to complain about. Sit down, get comfortable, and watch Sly steal the show: really pay attention to watch how masterfully believable he is, and how the pain he feels seems genuine. Where are these performances from him in all the rest of his movies??!!?? Director and screenwriter James Mangold (Walk the Line, Girl, Interrupted) got the best out of all of his star-studded cast, but Sly deserves the Lions share here. A must see, in my opinion, for lovers of the genre.
