Best movie ever!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a great movie. Tons of famous actors. Sly did a great job acting. One of his best jobs. Worth a watch.

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.

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to 1997's Copland.Plot In A Paragraph: Freddy Heflin (Stallone) is the sheriff of Garrison, New Jersey, a small town that many NYPD officers call home. He idolises them, especially Ray Donlan (Harvey Kietel) but when an officer (Michael Rappaport) is responsible for an incident involving the death of two civilians, he starts to realise his heroes may not be the good guys he thinks they are. Playing it subtle, playing an overweight Sheriff, deaf in one in ear, sad, lonely and practically beaten down by life. Copland features Sly's best performance since First Blood, and a serious argument could be made for it being his best since 'Rocky'. Sly does some great acting with his eyes, something normally reserved for his portrayals of Rocky Balboa. (Watch the scenes where De Niro calls him a "deaf f**k" and as he sits looking at the bridge just after his car accident) He is wonderful here and deserved an Academy Award nomination at least. I certainly rate his performance over the actual winner Jack Nicholson in 'As Good As It Gets'.Of the rest of the cast. Ray Liotta is brilliant as Heflin's best friend Figgsy, and if his character had been better written and more fleshed out, he'd have walked away with the full movie. Harvey Kietel is as great as he always is. Robert Patrick turns in a fine smarmy performance as does Michael Rappaport (an actor I'm a fan of) John Spencer is as wonderful as always, whilst Robert De Niro isn't given as much to do as one might hope, and Cathy Moriarty is under used.There is a lot of subplots, most of which are not explored. Figgs's drug problem, the bad blood between Figgs and Jack (Patrick), Heflin potentially having a drink problem, the relationship between Figgs and Ray, the relationship between Heflin and Rose, racism, affairs and the dumping of garbage bags. Characters pop up and then disappear We are teased with a scene between De Niro and Keitel early on, as Keitel says he will come in and see De Niro's Internal Affairs agent, but it never comes off and we miss it. Stallone has described this as "the beginning of the end, for about eight years" saying after announcing 'Daylight' would be his last action movie, and then going method (gaining the weight) and playing dramatic in this (despite solid reviews) he said he struggled to get roles or his own movies off the ground for the next 8 years. There are two versions available of this movie, the theatrical release and a directors cut released on DVD. I believe that between the two versions is a 10/10 movie, as it is, it's a 9/10.

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.