Cop Land 1997

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Whatever its limitations, Cop Land has talent to burn. Read more

Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader: The movie's no roller-coaster ride, but there isn't a boring moment either. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Cop Land shares its leading man's slow-wittedness, but also his likability. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com: It's pretty funny, actually, that Stallone gained 40 pounds to play this role, and what the movie needs more than anything else is to eat a salad and do some sit-ups. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Mangold certainly knew what he was doing when he cast Keitel and De Niro. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: This is a good filmthat could have been great if not for an act of well-intentioned, but misguided casting. Read more

Jack Kroll, Newsweek: Mangold is something of a pseudo-Scorsese. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A compelling, if imperfect, motion picture. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A movie with such a promising concept, so poorly executed, that it begs to be remade. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Oh, the tyranny of being serious about your art: It's a shame when an actor like Sylvester Stallone, who's always at his most appealing when he just hunkers down and lets himself be a big galoot, feels he has to make a bid for respectability. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Though at first Cop Land seems as if it will be an ensemble piece, it is, in fact, Stallone's movie. Read more

Time Out: The mystery suspense elements, however, grind from implausibility (the set-up), to cliche (the climax), with too much back story in between. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Although too simplistic in its good-guys/bad-guys approach to morally and emotionally ambiguous material, Cop Land emerges as an absorbing and dramatic yarn about exposing the evil doings of some of New York's finest. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: At its heart, the movie has a good story to tell: the lumbering oaf who's not nearly as stupid and not nearly as gutless as all the hot dogs from the big city think. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: Written and directed by James Mangold, the drama is dense but misses the moral complexities and grit, not to mention the oomph, of its urban predecessors. Read more