Cop Land (1997)
Film:
DVD:

Written & Directed by James Mangold
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, Robert Patrick

Features:

• Director's cut of the film
  
• Running audio commentary from writer/director Mangold, producer Cathy Konrad, actors Stallone and Patrick
  
• Deleted scenes with optional commentary
  
• Shootout storyboard sequence
  
• Making-of Featurette: "The Making of an Urban Western"
  

Released by: Miramax
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Skip it.

Freddy Heflin (Stallone) is the sheriff of Garrison, New Jersey. He's got a bit of an easy job, seeing as how Garrison is a small town haven for cops who work across the river...in the Big Apple. They can cross the bridge to small town bliss and leave the stink of the big city behind. Of course, there's some stink going on in Garrison as well. Among the cops are some very crooked ones indeed, since Moe Tilden (DeNiro) from Internal Affairs seems to have it out for them. And as things get deeper, Heflin is going to learn that the cops he's always looked up to are really nobody's role models.

For a cast with this much sheer talent going for it, it's a bit amazing, even knowing what a disappointment the film was, that such a film could disappoint. It's not even the performances that kill this thing, but the fact that the script they're working with is really nothing to sneeze on. I've never understood why so many great actors would work so hard to sign on to a project with such a slow, boring script. It takes forever to get to where it's trying to go, and once it's gotten there, it's really not worth the ride.

Stallone's performance is adequate, but he's not really given anything to do. Much hype is made of the fact that he was acting against type here--which is always something we respect--but against type for Stallone was just being slow and fat. But anybody could have played the part of Freddy and been just as slow and fat, so it's a bit of a mystery why anyone should care. He isn't a very interesting guy until...you guessed it...he picks up a gun. Apart from Ray Liotta, no one is given much of anything interesting or novel to do.

In the bonus features we learn that Mangold's intent was to create a kind-of mash-up, as if Martin Scorsese had tried to make an "urban western." However, this notion was lost in the original version of the film (and the director's cut doesn't do much to straighten this up), so it's a bit of a write-off. You kinda see where he was trying to go, but he never gets there. The commentary is interesting, since it discusses this and other things about the shooting and what it was like to work with so many Actors running around. Stallone is the high point, however, since he has enough of a sense of humor to make cracks on himself. When the character Robert Patrick plays is introduced puking in an alleyway, Stallone comments that Patrick must have just left a screening of D-Tox. Nice.

As stated, the "director's cut" is no improvement over the film as a whole, with its more than ten minutes of added stuff here and there. The featurette is pretty much what you would expect, with everyone blowing smoke. Yawn. The deleted scenes sport the same commentators as the feature, and again, it's easy to see why the stuff got cut. Lastly, the storyboard sequence is pretty cut and dried. It's not presented with any bookends or commentary to place any context on it, so you get what you see, basically.

Fans of the film will want to check this out, and I think that Stallone (who I think is really a funny guy--yes, intentionally) makes the commentary worth listening to, but sadly, his wit is not enough to recommend this for non-fans. Definitely a rental if you're into it.