Cheap Cop Land (Exclusive Director's Cut) (Miramax Collector's Edition) (DVD) (Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro) (James Mangold) Price

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Customer Reviews of Cop Land (Exclusive Director's Cut) (Miramax Collector's Edition)

weak story, but love the stars
Sylvester Stallone plays the fat sad sack of a sheriff of the fictitious town of Garrison, New Jersey. Essentially a bedroom community for NYPD officers who managed to end run regulations requiring that cops actually live in their city, Garrison seethes with the underworld corruption bred by crooked cops led by Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel). Stallone's sheriff Hefflin - overweight, deaf in one ear and not entirely spontaneous - was the perfect man to guard the "town full of cops" whom the script posits as at least mildly corrupt from the start of the film. (If you've heard the old line about foxes guarding the hen house, "Cop Land" has Stallone playing the opposite - the chicken keeping tabs on the foxes). Despite an intensive probe by IA Lt. Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) authorities haven't been able to stick anything to any one of the town's residents. A lucky break occurs when one the cops, Ray "Superboy" Babich (Michael Rappaport) is seen apparently committing suicide following a police shooting gone bad. (Hinting at the Diallo shooting which hadn't even happened yet, Babich takes a potshot at a car thinking its passengers are about to shoot at him. When the soon killed driver and passenger are found to possess, not a single gun, but at least one crutch, and responding EMS won't allow on-scene officers to plant incriminating guns on them, Babich panics and leaps off a bridge.) Saving and secreting Babich away to Garrison, Donlan and crew work to get Babich a new identity and a ticket out of NY. Hefflin, however, picks up on some obvious signs of the Babich conspiracy and, after being taken aside by Tilden (who visits Garrison during Babich's "funeral") decides to crack the conspiracy.

"Cop Land" was a disappointing story - building up on intricate details that don't so much as beef up the main plot (about saving PO Babich) as reveal how thin it was and why it was so important to keep the audience distracted from it. The script tosses in Ray Liotta as Figgis, the only one of Garrison's corrupt cops that gets along with Hefflin (the rest of town merely tolerates him), though it's clear that Liotta is only around to say stuff about Heffin that script can't bring Hefflin to say about himself. (From Fig, we learn of Hefflin's dream to become a cop, a dream crushed when Hefflin went deaf in one ear; we also learn how Heflin lost his hearing when he pulled a beautiful woman (Annabella Sciorra) from a sunken car. Needless to say, Hefflin does not get the girl). The script gives Fig a nasty drug habit (imagine Liotta's coke-fueled haze from the last half-hour of "Goodfellas" and you'll get the idea) and some other dubious baggage, but none of that matters when Fig tells Hefflin what nobody else dares to say aloud. Because the characters promise so much it's painful when the film comes to a screeching halt - in a gunfight between a battered Hefflin and Donlan (when plans to "save" Babich become too complicated, and everybody realizes it would be easier if he just disappeared). De Niro's character is completely superfluous - there to pump Hefflin for action and also to slam him down when Heff doesn't move fast enough. The film doesn't even look like it's sure about when its set - witness the horrible hairstyle they give some of the leads. Still, despite the over-hyped storyline and the underused talent, you do feel like you've seen enough to remind you that it ain't easy being a cop.

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A memorable movie with an even more memorable cast !
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.

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Underrated
Great little movie. Amazing cast, great performances. Nicely underplayed. Will be curiuos to see the directors cut with 11 extra minutes added.