ViewGuide

Created May 06, 2014 07:28PM PST • Edited Jan 24, 2020 05:43PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   De Niro, Keitel, Liotta, Berg and Stallone – with a helluva cast behind `em – turned Cop Land into a cauldron of cinematic testosterone. A strong sense of place and vivid filmmaking on both sides of the Hudson made it well worth a view. Genre requirements and trite political poison limited its upside.

   James Mangold’s movie posits cops as crime-family: wiseguys who carry the badge. They’re all pricks, crossing swords, with moral compromises from the serious to the profound. Liotta’s a particular peach: a cop with a coke habit. They drink to excess and then drive. Movie’s from `97 but plays like it’s from `77.

   Ultimate New Jersey movie, thy exit is Cop Land. It presaged The Sopranos and the Bridgegate Scandal both. One because Edie Falco, Annabella Sciorra, Frank Vincent, John Ventimiglia (Artie) and Tony Freaking Sirico are in it. The other because it was set in a fictional NJ town right below the GWB.

   Classic Miramax: well produced and cleverly subversive, Cop Land’s cast remains its calling card. De Niro, Keitel, Liotta and Berg got to play behind Stallone, which worked to everyone’s advantage but Sly’s. Cop Land’s cast makes it a still required stop on the NJ Turnpike of Acting, a veritable baritone Sopranos.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Sylvester Stallone was in a mid-career swoon when he agreed to lead a cast of serious actors in Cop Land. They all played his enemies, except one. It didn’t resuscitate his career, to put it mildly. Yet it gave plenty of room for Keitel, Liotta and De Niro to work, making it a successful performance in the eyes of posterity.

   Great Actors as Bad Cops

   • Harvey Keitel is top dog, the big man. Solid casting decision, that.
   • Ray Liotta is powerfully likable as Figgsy. Classic.
   • Peter Berg in one of his relatively rare acting gigs, which he nails. Annabella Sciorra as his long suffering wife, later had a memorable turn as one of Tony Soprano’s ill fated lovers.
   • Robert Patrick – young and lean in `97 – had no trouble playing a deeply corrupt cop.
   • Arthur J. Nascarella as his running buddy was surefire casting. He later played Carlo Gervasi on The Sopranos for five years.
   • Michael Rapaport – very young in `97 – has specialized in villains from the beginning.
   • John Spencer plays a bad cop named Leo. Two years later, he became Leo on The West Wing.
   • Frank Vincent as a corrupt PDA President. Perfect.
   • Edie Falco in a minor but key role for the future Carmella Soprano.
   • John Ventimiglia in an even more minor role, later became Artie Buco.
   • Tony Sirico finishes out The Sopranos crossover cast.
   • Terry Serpico

   Great Actor as Good Cop

   • Robert De Niro as Keitel’s Academy mate, now an IA mucky muck. Malik Yoba as his wingman.

   Supporting Cast

   • Janeane Garofalo as a confused Deputy
   • Noah Emmerich as another of Stallone’s Deputies
   • Cathy Moriarty as a desperate housewife
   • Oliver Solomon & Terri Towns as a Black Couple who get unfairly rousted
   • Bruce Altman as a shyster
   • Geraldo Rivera appears on TV

   And Lots More…

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Really Great 4.5

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    “I can’t hear you Ray,” is a great line in a trite screenplay that’s handcuffed to its genre requirements.

    To wit about the latter: A guy’s house burns down, burning his girlfriend to death. Big man arrives.

    Look at me Figgsy.

    Grabs his shoulders, meets his tearful gaze and asks his portentous question:

    Did you call in?

11. Direction Great 4.0

    Really well crafted film by James Mangold. What a set of glances at the funeral, for instance. The details are spot on, e.g., Stallone’s white sox. Well done when he loses his hearing, with his perception muffled.

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Nearly 30 stuntmen. Nearly 30 drivers.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.0

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Brutal 3.5

19. Rudeness Nasty 3.8

21. Reality

    Glib 1.6

    Police departments all around NYC helped them make this movie that slimes police. Why?

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.3

23. Biological Glib 1.5

24. Physical Natural 1.0