COP LAND (46)

Directed by: James Mangold

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Robert de Niro, Ray Liotta

The Pitch: A cadre of corrupt cops set up their own town, appointing a deferential local as the Sheriff ; but he decides to fight them.

Theo Sez: Hard to believe the man behind the meticulously understated HEAVY could end this tale of police corruption with a stern voice-over intoning that "no-one is above the law" (fortunately there's no flashing caption reading "Author's Message") : whether through studio interference or Mangold's own mishandling, what was presumably intended as a mainstream thriller with a small, "indie" flavour ends up with the worst of both worlds, a film so small it buckles under the weight of its mainstream aspirations. Intriguing fragments - things like Stallone's big-palooka cop being a classical-music buff - don't coalesce, any more than a neat touch like playing the climactic gun battle with the sound turned down can make that battle remotely exciting : it's just too thin a movie, its dramatic arc shockingly simplistic (the worm turns ; and, er, that's it) and the lines often clunky ("Being right is not a bulletproof vest") - the sparseness of HEAVY just won't translate to this kind of high-wattage context, especially when the characters remain undeveloped. Recommended only for those (like Mangold, presumably) who find cops fascinating, and find the premise of a town run by cops intrinsically clever : certainly, whenever it just observes the rites and rituals of police life - gathering together for colleagues' funerals, meeting in cops-only bars, living by rigid hierarchies and constant testosterone - is when the film comes momentarily to life.