#29 - Cop Land

I remember when this movie came out, all of the talk was about Sly Stallone putting on thirty pounds for the role. Apparently there is an assumption out there that gaining weight for a role implies extreme dedication to the part. Reality check....gaining weight is the easy part. Plus, thats why they make fat suits. I am way more impressed by people who get into top physical shape, or even lose weight for a role. Also, when the talk of a movie is an actors weight, that tells me that the movie probably isnt so hot cause there is nothing else worth talking about.

You must be asking why he gained all the weight. Well, he plays the sheriff of a town in New Jersey that is populated by policemen from the NYPD. Get it? You see, he is in a "safe" neighborhood with no crime. So he doesnt have much to do and is therefore complacent and weak willed. But did he have to gain why to show this? I would think that a more effective solution for portraying this would have been better acting and better writing. As written, Sly's character is subtle and racked with internal struggle. Both of which do not play towards Sly's strengths as an actore, and yes I thinl there are some. But you have to know this and write in other things that he can do to show his struggle. Don't make him just sit there and contemplate, show me his inability to act even though he wants to and knows he should.

This movie suffers from an unfortune waste of talent. Harvey Keitel was not very effective as a heavy, because he didnt have to be. Sly wasn't much of an obstacle to him, so there was no real clash between the two. Ray Liotta's character was completely transparent. Oh, and the premise for everything was good. I completely forgot to mention the fact that the cops originally secured the land for their neighborhood by working with the mob. There IS conflict here. There IS a struggle. It just does not come across at all.

Techinical sidenote question: What movie was Howard Shore composing the score for? Was it an epic action kind of movie like Backdraft? Or was it what was actually presented on film? I'm thinking it was the former. I know this guy has won awards and all that stuff, but he composed a score for what the movie wanted to be, not what it actually was. Therefore, the musical score was NOT GOOD. You got those snare drums you hear in cop dramas followed by a swelling horn section to get you pumped up to watch a fat, yet still pretty ripped, Sly sit and contemplate. Oh, shame on you Howard Shore. You could have salvaged something out of the movie by helping to give some drama where it wasn't. Instead, you just reminded us that we weren't watching what we should have been watching.