Cheap Cop Land (DVD) (Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro) (James Mangold) Price

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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.

Sorta like Wild Animal Park in bloody blue
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."

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