COPLAND Review On "Violent Maniac's Cage"

COPLAND

(1997, USA)

As soon as I seen the cast for this film I had to see it. Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta, Robert Patrick, Michael Rappaport, Janeane Garofalo, Peter Berg and Annabella Sciorra and surprisingly the best role was played by Stallone. He was fantastic and if he isn't nominated for an academy award this year something is definetly wrong. The film has a small town in New Jersey right across from Manhatten called Garrison which is inhabited and ran by cops (land of cops, Copland maybe).

Stallone plays the sheriff of Garrison. Stallone once saved a woman (Sciorra) and lost his hearing in one ear doing so. Freddy (Stallone) also tried to join the police force and could not do so due to his condition. The cops of Garrison set him up with the easy job as sheriff. Stallone plays it passive throughout most of this until the stunning conclusion. The story has a cop cover-up gone wrong and Keitels mob connections makeing things hard for him. Keitel treats Stallone like a joke until with a little real persuasion the second time around by De Niro Stallone starts to act with help from Liotta.

Liotta is very good in this, Keitels bad cop roles are getting tiresome and De Niro who was good didn't have as meaty a role as I thought he'd have. Patrick is probably the mean guy of the film along with another old feller, the two are Keitels henchmen. What can I say probably one of the best films of the year. Stallone shines.

Rating: 5 Skulls

Review by: Richard J. Taylor

Email: rtaylor@roadrunner.nf.net

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