If there was ever an action drama that coulda been a contender, it’s Cop Land. Instead, yeah, it’s kind of a bum — but one with a really impressive cast. Sylvester Stallone stars as Freddy Heflin, a man who worships cops but could never become one himself due to being slightly deaf, though he manages to get himself elected sheriff of a small town in New Jersey that’s home to a lot of New York City boys in blue. Soon after a rather unfortunate incident involving an officer and a civilian, an Internal Affairs investigator (Robert De Niro) comes sniffing around and teams up with Freddy to uncover all sorts of (needlessly convoluted) conspiracy and corruption in the NYPD. Yeah, considering the cast that director James Mangold assembled (which includes Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta, as well as several other heavyweights), Cop Land should’ve been a classic but often comes across as more of an extended Twilight Zone episode than anything, I dunno, plausible. For all the alpha-male bravado going on, it’s Stallone who really shines in his understated performance as an overweight and none-too-bright nice guy who’s suddenly called upon to do some real police work.
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