| Cop Land (1997) Cast:Sylvester Stallone,Robert De Niro,Ray Liotta,Harvey Keitel,Robert Patrick Action is only an afterthought in this well acted drama about a group of corrupt cops hanging out in a small town in New Jersey where Stallone is the sheriff, conflict ensues when he decides not to look the other way when it comes to their corruption and a battle wages on in this intense thriller. Cop Land is one of those movies that surprised me over the fact that it wasn't the brainless police thriller I thought it would be. Indeed with Sylvester Stallone's name in the credits one assumed this would be along the lines of Tango And Cash rather than Q & A , one emerged however blown away by Cop Land especially due to the attention paid to character rather than action. Indeed Stallone looks to have gained weight and gives a very impressive performance which shows that Sly can indeed act when he wants to. The story of course is your basic corruption angle but Keitel's edgy performance as well as Liotta's trademark jumpy thesping manages to make Cop Land a solid character driven drama. Strangely the only disappointment here is Robert De Niro's performance who isn't given much to do. Cop Land though features Stallone in good form and it's a crime this didn't do as well at the box office. Also the climax at the end, which finds Stallone deaf and unaware of his surroundings provide a great deal of suspense and Mangold manages to tighten the suspense and direct the action with crisp percision. D.James Mangold ***1/2 |