Cop Land (1997)

Director: James Mangold

Writer: James Mangold

Composer: Howard Shore

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Noah Emmerich, Cathy Moriarty, John Spencer, Frank Vincent, Malik Yoba, Arthur J. Nascarella, Edie Falco, Deborah Harry, Frank Pellegrino, Garry Pastore, Tony Sirico

More info: IMDb

Tagline: No One Is Above The Law.

Plot: The sheriff of a suburban New Jersey community populated by New York City policemen slowly discovers the town is a front for mob connections and corruption.

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

It's been far too long since I last watched this. The next time I won't wait so long.  It's a great picture and it's the one that showed the world that Stallone can restrain himself from being the big time Hollywood superstar action hero and play a smaller, quieter role and in that, he excelled. The movie is filled with great little performances.  Keitel can play a right menacing and intimidating bastard and it's nice seeing De Niro play such an understated role.  There are lots of mustaches in this movie.  Lots.  Good score by Howard Shore.  I'd forgotten he did this but it didn't take but a few minutes to figure out it was him.  Between his scores for THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) and the LORD OF THE RINGS (2011) films it was a dead giveaway to who it was. Ray Liotta is great in everything and his character has an interesting arc which I really dug.  There's a lot of interesting stuff going on here but it all comes down to how it works as a whole and it really works.  If it's been too long since you saw it or if you haven't yet, put it at the top.  It's one of the best crime dramas of the 90s.