Rating: 
Summary: A Stallone Movie That Doesn't [stink]
Review: I thought it would take years for Stallone to gain back my respect after making such ... as "Eye See You," "Get Carter," "Driven," and "Avenging Angela," but I've realized that popping my copy of "Cop Land" into my DVD player can stave off the disappointment for at least two hours. Stallone isn't impressive in the role, but he does it well, and that's a satisfying return to dramatic acting. Also present in the film are some of my favorite actors, including Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Harvey Keitel. Ray Liotta is perfect for the role, and the seemingly ever-present Michael Rappaport, who has a knack for popping up in movies with unexpectedly important roles, is enjoyable as usual. The story is easily followed from beginning to end with little interruption in thought process, which be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the viewer. Janeane Garafalo and Noah Emmerich ("Truman Show") play Stallone's deputies, both of whom don't have much play in the final third of the film. Action and drama blend well in this one, the story of a small town made up of mostly corrupt New York cops, with Stallone as the town's chief determined to prove he's a true policeman. This one is a definite recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: THE SLOW ONE
Review: With a cast and a plot " Ã la Scorsese " , James Mangold's COP LAND unfortunately isn't even an half " Ã la Scorsese " movie. Like Freddy "Sylvester Stallone" Heflin, COP LAND is slow, heavy and so evident. Just imagine that the director, in order to make us understand that the Sheriff Heflin is not fighting for the world record of smartness per square/kilo, films during long minutes a turtle, the little toy of his girlfriend's daughter. But I did have a huge pleasure to admire Sylvester Stallone in this role which seems to have been written specially for him. Besides, Ray Liotta, Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro are great as usual. So COP LAND is an average movie that provides the kind of pleasure one can expect from an average movie (I agree, it's not the smartest thought of the year !). If you want to see a great movie about corrupt cops, rent or buy Sidney Lumet's THE PRINCE OF THE CITY (alas, not in the DVD standard), you won't be disappointed. A DVD for Sly.
Rating:
Summary: Great Cast Not much story
Review: I will be honest the reason I rented this movie was because of the Cast. Ray Liotta to me had the best part in the movie of all of them. Then next would be Harvey Kietel as a corrupt New York Cop. Stallone is playing a small town Sherrif who is deaf in one ear(this gets played out in the movie) who has come to a New Jersey Suberb area and realizes that some of his friends in the Police Department nice or not turn out to be crooks. Robert Patrick another corrupt cop in the movie is good alongside in Keitels gang. The acting in this is very dissapointing. I was not blown away actually by De Niro's performance in this movie. I thought is was just a desperate attempt to use star power with an ensemble cast. You got to have a good platform for it to work.
Directed by James Mangold
Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta, Robert Patrick, Harvey Kietel and Robert De Niro
Rating: 
Summary: A memorable movie with an even more memorable cast !
Review: The movie Cop Land combines long lost talent in its leading star, Sylvester Stallone; top notch performances from its supporting cast, Ray Liotta, Robert Deniro, Harvey Keitel, and Annabella Sciorra; wonderful cinematography by Eric Edwards; and brilliant direction of James Mangold who later went on to direct such hits as Kate And Leopold, Identity, and Girl Interrupted. Cop Land is a fictional tale of crime and corruption in a city run and occupied by New York's unfinest cops. Stallone pulls it off excellently as the city's overweight sherrif, Freddie Heflin, who couldn't get into to the force on account of his deaf ear. When the police force covers up a cop shooting that leaves two innocent men dead and stages a hero story, its up to Sherrif Heflin to reveal the truth and bring order to the city known to everybody as Cop Land. The movie features an outstanding performance by Robert Deniro as an FBI agent trying to uncover the deceptions and opens Heflin's eyes to the corruption around him. A memorable film with an even more memorable ensemble cast.
Rating:
Summary: Sorta like Wild Animal Park in bloody blue
Review: Director James Mangold makes good use of Sylvester Stallone in this cop corruption saga while capturing the mentality of a small New Jersey town atmospherically named "Garrison" (Fort Lee?), a town that serves as an inbred bedroom community for the NYPD blue. I could tell by the foliage that most of this was filmed during an eastern seaboard summer: I could feel the humidity and it made me want to wring out my shirt and slap some mosquitoes. Stallone is very good as Sheriff Freddy Heflin, who was rejected for the NYPD because of a bum ear suffered saving a beloved girl's life. He's the simple sap who's not so simple, slow to anger, but once aroused, look out! (Compare to the ingredients of the Stallone Formula.) De Niro plays an Internal Affairs investigator while Harvey Keitel is his mortal enemy, a corrupt sleaze-ball cop. What I want to know is, was the choice of the name Figgis for Ray Liotta's part a director's inside joke? Incidentally, Liotta is entirely believable as a testosterone/coke-hyped cop wanting OUT. The story is reasonable as these things go, and the old style Western shoot 'em up near the end tolerable. I found some of the plot devices, such as Figgis finding Freddy in the burnt out house, and one of the corrupt cops popping up in the back seat of Freddy's patrol car, a little too convenient. (But a contrivance is better than lollygagging the plot.) I also thought the rationale for the cops' violent turning on their own a little underdeveloped and especially difficult to appreciate near the beginning of the film. The ensemble of corruption and degeneracy fully revealed however made sense. The sound track is excellent and the cinematography and backdrops make New Jersey along the Hudson almost picturesque. What Mangold proves here is he can conjure up an action/adventure ditty with the best of them. He's already made an excellent art film, Heavy (1995), and a superior and original coming of ager, Girl, Interrupted (1999). I believe that the romantic comedy and the epic cannot be far behind. For a young director with his talent, the only question (aside from money, chance and the availability of the box office buffos) is does he want to be a cinematic artist or a commercial artist? I hope he can be both. Best joke: "I didn't know they allowed classical music in New Jersey."
Rating:
Summary: I heard there was a way of life out here.
Review: Sylvester Stallone can act. There. I said it. And as ridiculous as that statement may appear to some readers, you really do owe it to yourself to take a look at "Cop Land," and see just how good of an actor Sylvester can be! Who would believe that Stallone could appear on the same screen as Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, and Robert De Niro, and hold his own? Certainly not this viewer, and I admit that when I originally went to see the film it was BECAUSE of Keitel, Liotta, and De Niro. So you can imagine just how surprised I was that Stallone wasn't blasted off the screen by the combined talent of his heavyweight co-stars. Stallone plays "Sheriff Freddy Heflin," the law in the small, New Jersey town of Garrison, just across the George Washington Bridge. What makes Garrison special is that a large percentage of the residents are cops who work the other side of the bridge; hence the nick-name of "Cop Land." There are very few burglaries in Garrison, in fact, there is very little CRIME in Garrison period, so Freddy's days seem to be an endless round of completing paperwork for littering violations, cautioning the occasional drunk, and rescuing children's soft toys from being run over in the road. This is a shame, because Freddy wants to be a REAL cop, he wants to work the other side of the bridge, but an injury sustained when he saved a women who's car ended up in the river has left him deaf in one ear. Poor Freddy would never pass the physical, but the town showed its appreciation by allowing him to be the Sheriff... kind-of a consolation prize. But all is not well, there's something rotten in the town of Garrison, a corruption that's eating at the towns soul, and this corruption is personified in the character of "Ray Donlan," played by Keitel. When a fellow cop is involved in a questionable double homicide, Donlan initiates a cover-up that will have explosive consequences for the quiet town of Garrison, but especially for himself and Sheriff Heflin. The fall-out will also engulf the Sheriff's best friend, "Gary Figgis," played by Ray Liotta, another "real" cop, but one who's sick of the corruption and is getting out. Also involved is IAD staffer "Lt. Moe Tilden," played by De Niro, who's been tracking Donlan and his team, and is determined to bring them down. This is an excellent ensemble cast that really shines in their roles, and Stallone, as I said before, is a revelation. He piled on about 40lbs to play the part, so what we see is not the pumped-up, testosterone driven action man we have come to know and love, but a quieter, humbler, slightly "slow," kind-a bumbling character. Sad and ineffectual, he's barely tolerated by Donlan and his cronies, who's company he so desperately wants to keep. The story is tight and economical, the dialogue has the ring of authenticity to it, and there's a bitter-sweet romantic sub-plot between Freddy and one of the town's residents that works perfectly within the story. There's a scene where he's asked, by the woman he secretly loves, why he didn't marry, "All the best girls were taken," he replies, and you can practically see the big guy's heart breaking in two! Don't be put off because Stallone has top billing, this is an excellent film that works on many levels, with a clutch of superbly realistic performances driven by a well constructed story, I would recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: One Good Cop
Review: When I bought my first DVD player a number of years ago, Cop Land was one of the films that, I thought about buying right off the bat. I was disappointed though, to discover there were no bonus features on the disc, and I didn't get it. Back then, my rule was simple: no bonus material-no purchase. After a long wait, a special edition for the film, is finally here. Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone) is the sheriff of a place everyone calls "Cop Land"-a small and seemingly peaceful town populated by the big-city police officers he's always admired. Yet something ugly is taking place below the surface. The sheriff is shocked when he uncovers a large and deadly conspiracy among these local residents. He doesn't know who to trust. Gary Figgis (Ray Liotta) and Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel) try to persuade Heflin that he is wrong. Soon though, he is forced to take action and make the difficult choice between protecting his own and enforcing the law, as Lt. Tilden (Robert De Niro), an Internal Affairs officer, arrives to begin an investigation of his own. Writer/director James Mangold assembled a top notch cast that can't be beat. Stallone rises to the challenge and gives his best performance since the original Rocky flick--no really, it's that good. The drama and situations are very real. No over the top, super hero heroics are to be had. It's gritty reality is heightened for me even more, due to Mangold's use of many familiar North Jersey locales, as the story's backdrop. The DVD showcases a 116-minute "Director's Cut" of film. In this cut, 11 minutes of footage is reinserted, not part of the original theatrical version. For the most part, these scenes are rich in character bits and advance the plot only slightly. Still, the 11 minutes are worthwhile. The audio commentary track from Mangold, producer Cathy Konrad, cast members Stallone and Robert Patrick is a solid one, filled with great insight on how the film came together. Aside from the 11 minutes of inserted scenes, there are a few additional deleted scenes complete with opitional commentary from Mangold, about the editing choices he made. The film's climatic shootout and its corresponding storyboards are detailed for viewers. Pretty cool. Rounding out the bonus material is a featurette called "The Making of an Urban Western" All I'll say is the commentary is better. The special edition of Cop Land is recommended. And it's worth a re-purchase if you already own the movie only disc. ****1/2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: SLY IS THE BEST!!!!
Review: I AM A HUGE SLY FAN EVER SINCE I WAS A KID, ANY FILM SLY MAKES I MUST SEE WEATHER IT BE SPY KIDS 3 OR THE NEW MOVIE "SHADE" I HAVE TO SEE IT IF SLY IS IN IT. COPLAND IS A WONDERFUL MOVIE AND WHAT IT DID WAS INTREST ME TO BE A DEPUTY SHERIFF MAYBE IN THE FUTURE. SLY ONCE AGAIN DOES A GREAT JOB AS THE DOWN TO EARTH SHERIFF WHO JUST WANTS A LITTLE MORE CREDIT FOR HIS JOB. APART FROM THE GREAT SLY WE HAVE THE GREAT HARVEY KEITEL, RAY LIOTTA AND OF COURSE ONE OF MY TOP 5 FAV ACTORS ALONE WITH SLY WHO IS NUMBER 3 ROBERT DI NERO. THIS IS A GREAT FILM FOR COP LOVERS I THINK ITS ONE OF THE BEST AND REALISTIC FILMS ABOUT BEING A SO CALLED "COP" AND BEING A "SHERIFF". I WOULD RATHER BE A SHERIFF AND WEATHER MOE TILDEN LIKES IT OR NOT FREDDY HEFLIN IS A COP.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Director's Cut
Review: This DVD is great. The director's cut is not just the original movie re-packaged. Atleast twenty scenes have been re-edited with new footage. I loved it! The DVD also has some great extras. Great job Miramax!
Rating:
Summary: ALMOST a triumph, but....
Review: When I first saw this flick I was pretty disappointed, but upon a second viewing it feels like the star power involved with the film lead people to expect too much from it. It was intended as Sylvester Stallone's return to serious films but, as it wasn't well received at the box office, Stallone's career has floundered in other lacklustre efforts. It reminded me of when Stallone did his most interesting work in the 70's, in F.I.S.T., Victory, Rocky (which many people don't realize he wrote) and even First Blood. He's almost unrecognizable here as Freddy Heflin, the Sheriff of a small Jersey town that's populated by New York City cops. Overweight and weary-looking, the Sheriff always wanted to be an NYC cop but an injury that left him partially deaf, while saving the life of Annabella Sciorra, prevents that. Harvey Keitel is a corrupt cop who makes Garisson NJ a safe haven for his fellow police officers. When his nephew 'Superboy', played by Michael Rappaport, gets involved in the shooting of two young black teenagers, there is a cover up by Kietel to avoid a possible racial incident. Robert DeNiro is the Internal Affairs officer investigating the scenario and Ray Liotta is a former colleague of Kietel's, who acts as Stallone's confidante. Stallone is really likeable here, as a lumpy, wishy-washy sheriff whose authority is never taken seriously because he never displays any backbone. This is the Stallone that I liked from the first Rocky movie; humble and easy-going, not the testosterone-pumped megastar of the 80s. There's a sense of sadness and loneliness that reveals as much about the actor as the character he's playing. The scene where he's in his room alone, listening to a sad Bruce Springsteen song, reveals in Stallone a talent that has been sadly neglected in the various blockbusters he's starred in. Ray Liotta, however, steals the film from everyone else. He takes a despicable character and makes him the most out of him. He's so good at playing unwashed, ill-natured characters that you can almost smell the grease coming off him. Unkempt, overweight and quick-tempered he's entirely believeable in his portayal of a cynical cop who has had enough of the corruption. His is the most human and complex of all the movie's characters. Liotta should be a star. Kietel is suitably menacing as the ringleader of the crooked police crew. Everything he does is to protect his own interests and he mercilessly rids himself of anyone who stands in his way. Unfortunately, a lot of the parts in the film are minor and DeNiro, Sciorra, Rappaport, Robert Patrick and Jeneane Garofolo are woefully underutilized. It's precisely because of the overabundance of talented cast members that the film gets hampered by it's own ambition and audience expectations. It would have worked better with more unknowns. The story in itself is well crafted and the revelations of the extent of police corruption smacks of truth. The ending is somewhat unsatisfying, but the film was truly a lot better than the reviews it got at the time suggest. Poor Sly. This really could have been a wonderful rebirth for him.
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