A movie with a plot like this usually only goes two ways in Hollywood: the main character joins the man the crooked cops are trying to kill and get back at them in a twenty-minute blaze of gratuitously violent, over- the-top glory; or the main character will simply screw himself over with his moral dilemma and get himself killed by those he used to consider his friends and idols.
Luckily, Cop Land isn't as generic as that sounds, since it doesn't really go either way. De Niro and Keitel are great as always, reviving their old Scorcese days for their roles here. What really stands out is Stallone's performance. Having only seen him in movies like Cliffhanger, Rambo, and Rocky, I figured he had about as much range as say, Bruce Willis--always playing himself, running (or shooting) his way through the movie while still maintaining his usual look. Willis is always quiet and snappy unless the situation takes a turn for the worst. Jason Statham is always the angry British guy. Arnold Schwarzenegger is always big and booming. Stallone himself was always a bit jumpy and wild, mumbling through conversations whenever he wasn't yelling a battle-cry.
But here, while he still mumbles, he's almost a completely different person. Here, Stallone's a quiet, somewhat socially awkward, friendly sheriff named Freddy who idolizes members of a police force he couldn't get himself into due to an ear injury from rescuing a girl in a car crash years earlier. He's got a gut, and no spine to support it, turning a blind eye to the little crooked things his idols let slip. He doesn't act against them due to loyalty to men he admires for doing what he couldn't do: join the force.
All of that changes when a young hero cop nicknamed "Superboy" blunders, whose death is faked at the crime scene by Freddy's idols as a cover-up. Freddy soon realizes the truth when he sees "Superboy" in the back of Ray Donlan's (Keitel) car, alive and well, hiding from the public. He's pushed by an Internal Affairs agent named Tilden, to do the right thing and help him bring Donlan and his to justice. It's generally up to Freddy to disregard his loyalty for what's right.
Now, there's a whole connection with the mob thing and other complications I won't spoil, and while there's a brief 'blaze of violent glory' I hinted at in the first paragraph at the end, it's not really glorified in a Hollywood sense of "hero comes in and saves the day, leaving the evil villains to burn in a giant overblown explosion that somehow doesn't deafen him or send him flying as he's walking away from it in slow motion." No, it's more of a quiet act of retribution. Stallone's never been better, and with the way he's going with his career choices these days, I doubt he'll ever be this good again.
Luckily, Cop Land isn't as generic as that sounds, since it doesn't really go either way. De Niro and Keitel are great as always, reviving their old Scorcese days for their roles here. What really stands out is Stallone's performance. Having only seen him in movies like Cliffhanger, Rambo, and Rocky, I figured he had about as much range as say, Bruce Willis--always playing himself, running (or shooting) his way through the movie while still maintaining his usual look. Willis is always quiet and snappy unless the situation takes a turn for the worst. Jason Statham is always the angry British guy. Arnold Schwarzenegger is always big and booming. Stallone himself was always a bit jumpy and wild, mumbling through conversations whenever he wasn't yelling a battle-cry.
But here, while he still mumbles, he's almost a completely different person. Here, Stallone's a quiet, somewhat socially awkward, friendly sheriff named Freddy who idolizes members of a police force he couldn't get himself into due to an ear injury from rescuing a girl in a car crash years earlier. He's got a gut, and no spine to support it, turning a blind eye to the little crooked things his idols let slip. He doesn't act against them due to loyalty to men he admires for doing what he couldn't do: join the force.
All of that changes when a young hero cop nicknamed "Superboy" blunders, whose death is faked at the crime scene by Freddy's idols as a cover-up. Freddy soon realizes the truth when he sees "Superboy" in the back of Ray Donlan's (Keitel) car, alive and well, hiding from the public. He's pushed by an Internal Affairs agent named Tilden, to do the right thing and help him bring Donlan and his to justice. It's generally up to Freddy to disregard his loyalty for what's right.
Now, there's a whole connection with the mob thing and other complications I won't spoil, and while there's a brief 'blaze of violent glory' I hinted at in the first paragraph at the end, it's not really glorified in a Hollywood sense of "hero comes in and saves the day, leaving the evil villains to burn in a giant overblown explosion that somehow doesn't deafen him or send him flying as he's walking away from it in slow motion." No, it's more of a quiet act of retribution. Stallone's never been better, and with the way he's going with his career choices these days, I doubt he'll ever be this good again.