I'll be honest. Copland is not a great film. It's a better watch the second time around, where it entertained me much more. Stallone is in his element, and will surprise you, especially people doubting his acting ability, as a beaten cop, who got the bad end of the stick. He works in this town on the other side of the Jersey river, that offers a much more prosperous future. In his own town, he just discovers police corruption which runs a deep path, headed by old colleague (Keitel, in a tight performance). The police force here, is a front for drugs, and other things, where we meet a few bad apples like T2's Robert Patrick, an actor who always brings something to the table. A supposed jumper, cop Rappaport disappears, and later on, becomes a liability, where the only cop he can trust is overweight, apathetic Stallone, who's just so good in this film. Copland does have some original and fresh touches about it, regarding plot, one scene borrowing, or resembling that one in Striking Distance. De Niro as a tough, hard as nails IA detective, of course, does us solid. A beefy Liotta is also very good, as Stallone's good friend and partner, adding a kind of doubting menace regarding his standing as a honest cop, which I liked, as well as his excellent talent at demonstrating very real anger, but apart from Stallone, Keitel was the other one who really impressed me. There's nothing but good actors in Copland, Cathy Moriarty, worse praising too, as a Keitel's haggard wife, doing a younger cop. The movie does keep falling to patches of ordinary, as it's not the best pick off the shelf, but definitely watch this good acting over story, especially when the films heralded by Stallone's really impressive acting you gotta witness.
Review of Cop Land
