Reviews (3)

Chance, circumstance, compassion, loss - a journey.
This is an interesting psychological journey of One Good Cop (Michael Keaton) who makes a decision to do something wrong. One thought stands out in the movie, and will probably stay with me for a long time: People make millions in drug money while law abiding, honest people can barely afford to keep a roof over their heads. That truth is relevant.

Keaton was excellent in showing the honesty of a cop who loses his partner of eight years. It is easy to see how deep the bond of friendship is between shield carrying brothers or sisters. They can't really share their day at home with family and loved ones because it would drag their family through the underworld garbage as well. That barrier, however, is hard on a marriage, but remains in place because cops do want to protect the good guys.

Keaton is given the guardianship of his partner's children. Rene Russo is beautiful in her role as Keaton's wife; always wanting children, but unable to bear them. Suddenly life gives her a family -- and these children need two loving guardians to have a healthy survival of the loss of both of their parents. They do not need to be separated into three foster homes or adopted by different families.

However, there is simply not enough money to take care of them. Neither Keaton nor Russo want to lose these three little girls who brought a new kind of love and laughter into their tiny home. And tiny it is -- one bedroom, where the girls now sleep together, a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The significance of the lodgings is the impetus for the crime.

The question arises: is stealing from criminals, in order to take care of the children they turned into orphans, sactioned?

Benjamin Bratt is filled with his usual bravado, and he is also a good cop. In fact, the entire supporting cast is well chosen. Even Bratt agrees with the police captain's decision when ultimately the crime is exposed.

This is good drama, a strong story, and the psychological journey is worth the trip. I give is four stars.

Victoria Tarrani

one good movie
Michael Keaton has been in some good movies and this is one of them. One Good Cop is more of an action drama than a "shoot em/kill em" type movie. It has a good story and you care about what happens to the characters. If you are a Michael Keaton fan or just like entertaining cop stories then this movie is one to see.

A sentimental action drama... go figure
Widowed cop Stevie Diroma (Anthony LaPaglia) dies on the job. His partner Artie Lewis (Michael Keaton) decides to take care of his three daughters for a while. Artie's infertile wife (Rene Russo) would like to adopt them, but given his salary they live in a small apartment, so the kids will end up in adopting agency. Therefore Artie decides to stick up the drug dealer responsible for Diroma's death and use the money to buy a big house where he can live with the children.

Is he supposed to be a 'good' cop? A bad cop isn't necessarily Harvey Keitel in Ferrara's 'Bad Lieutenant'. Innocent people get killed due to his smart idea but he gets away with it because his colleagues cover some things up. In a world where the Internal Affairs DO exist this movie makes no sense.

An overlong and unfocused sentimental cop drama that ends with an ordinary shoot-out. Won't go down well with neither action nor drama fans. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Pullman perfect, HBO sells him short
HBO needs to stick to showing other people's movies and give up on making their own. Bill Pullman (While You Were Sleeping) gives it his best shot in this unrealistic movie of a cop holding prisoners at gun point in a courtroom and letting the whole world see it on television. It's a sad sign of the times. Another great actor that didn't get used well was Robert Loggia (Big). Great talent needs to work to become better. This movie justs makes you wish they didn't have to do movies like this to perfect their craft.

Raw Deal
Bill Pullman plays a cop who angry at the acquittal of a cop killer takes over the courtroom and begins his own trial. Brilliant performances by Pullman and Robert Loggia as the captain.

This Is A Mistrail.
The Movie is Great Bill Pullman Is So Hot In The Movie And On The Cover I Love Him With A Gun. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Pullman perfect, HBO sells him short
HBO needs to stick to showing other people's movies and give up on making their own. Bill Pullman (While You Were Sleeping) gives it his best shot in this unrealistic movie of a cop holding prisoners at gun point in a courtroom and letting the whole world see it on television. It's a sad sign of the times. Another great actor that didn't get used well was Robert Loggia (Big). Great talent needs to work to become better. This movie justs makes you wish they didn't have to do movies like this to perfect their craft.

Raw Deal
Bill Pullman plays a cop who angry at the acquittal of a cop killer takes over the courtroom and begins his own trial. Brilliant performances by Pullman and Robert Loggia as the captain.

This Is A Mistrail.
The Movie is Great Bill Pullman Is So Hot In The Movie And On The Cover I Love Him With A Gun. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Boring and badly written, no DVD extras
I should have followed my instinct to turn the movie off halfway through. The film was surprising only for its bad writing and lack of suspense (think "Movie of the Week" production of a so-so novel). Joanne Whalley, Armand Assante and Gabriel Byrne are all excellent actors who are completely wasted in these roles. The characters are throroughly uninteresting stereotypes and the finale is simply absurd.

The only redeeming quality in this mess of a film was the role played by John Hurt. He turns in a solid performance as the drunken, ex-cop on the mob payroll who can't bring himself to be the evil thug he's paid to be. However, that role alone doesn't even come close to redeeming the movie as a whole.

The DVD itself has no extras except for the movie's trailer so you're not missing anything special there. Frankly, I'd recommend 'The Juror' instead. That movie has a similar plot, and flaws of its own, but at least I didn't feel cheated when it ended.

Another unjustly neglected picture-
--And not because of the script or the premise, which are frankly shlock: the mob gets to one key juror by threatening her son, and she manages to convince the rest of the jurors to let the bad ole mob boss walk, against their better judgement. In real life of course, the bad guys would've hedged their bets by threatening the families of most or all of the jurors, but then we wouldn't have our feisty protagonist who has to safeguard her son AND set things straight, and of course, no movie either.
Nevertheless, IN SPITE of the ridiculousness of the premise and the somewhat dated dialogue the script inflicts on some of the actors*, Joanne Whalley and William Hurt make this film worth watching. Whalley has to create a woman who initially strikes us as meek and unpreposessing, who somehow finds the resources within to first stir the jury to let the mob boss walk, then protect her son from the gangsters-- a tall order. Whalley does have what it takes to do this, the self-assurance to draw the viewer in, with a quiet and understated performance that makes this transition believable. Likewise, William Hurt is convincing as a weak, flawed man who wants to do right, playing both sides and knowing he'll get burned in the end. Whalley and Hurt are quite a contrast from Armand Assante, so good as a gangster in Q&A, but merely content to chew the scenery in a similar role
here.

*especially Gabriel Byrne and Armand Assante; at least we're spared them referring to Whalley as a dame.

Great Cast
I get the sense that there were a lot of scenes that were left out of the final cut of this movie that might explain some character development. If you can suspend belief to get past some of the roughnesses, this will keep you interested.

Armand Assante and Gabriel Byrne have an electrifying, riveting chemistry in the scenes they are in together and I found myself returning to the moral premise of the movie long after the actual run time was over.

Predictable
As is all too common with movies this one offers slick hype, but with little substance. I found myself "seeing" the next scene and the movie's conclusion before each occurred. A real yawner.

The original "The Juror"
The plot of this movie is unmatched. Excellent acting to blend. Rusty Parone (Armand Assante, Gotti) cannot be touched. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Boring and badly written, no DVD extras
I should have followed my instinct to turn the movie off halfway through. The film was surprising only for its bad writing and lack of suspense (think "Movie of the Week" production of a so-so novel). Joanne Whalley, Armand Assante and Gabriel Byrne are all excellent actors who are completely wasted in these roles. The characters are throroughly uninteresting stereotypes and the finale is simply absurd.

The only redeeming quality in this mess of a film was the role played by John Hurt. He turns in a solid performance as the drunken, ex-cop on the mob payroll who can't bring himself to be the evil thug he's paid to be. However, that role alone doesn't even come close to redeeming the movie as a whole.

The DVD itself has no extras except for the movie's trailer so you're not missing anything special there. Frankly, I'd recommend 'The Juror' instead. That movie has a similar plot, and flaws of its own, but at least I didn't feel cheated when it ended.

Another unjustly neglected picture-
--And not because of the script or the premise, which are frankly shlock: the mob gets to one key juror by threatening her son, and she manages to convince the rest of the jurors to let the bad ole mob boss walk, against their better judgement. In real life of course, the bad guys would've hedged their bets by threatening the families of most or all of the jurors, but then we wouldn't have our feisty protagonist who has to safeguard her son AND set things straight, and of course, no movie either.
Nevertheless, IN SPITE of the ridiculousness of the premise and the somewhat dated dialogue the script inflicts on some of the actors*, Joanne Whalley and William Hurt make this film worth watching. Whalley has to create a woman who initially strikes us as meek and unpreposessing, who somehow finds the resources within to first stir the jury to let the mob boss walk, then protect her son from the gangsters-- a tall order. Whalley does have what it takes to do this, the self-assurance to draw the viewer in, with a quiet and understated performance that makes this transition believable. Likewise, William Hurt is convincing as a weak, flawed man who wants to do right, playing both sides and knowing he'll get burned in the end. Whalley and Hurt are quite a contrast from Armand Assante, so good as a gangster in Q&A, but merely content to chew the scenery in a similar role
here.

*especially Gabriel Byrne and Armand Assante; at least we're spared them referring to Whalley as a dame.

Great Cast
I get the sense that there were a lot of scenes that were left out of the final cut of this movie that might explain some character development. If you can suspend belief to get past some of the roughnesses, this will keep you interested.

Armand Assante and Gabriel Byrne have an electrifying, riveting chemistry in the scenes they are in together and I found myself returning to the moral premise of the movie long after the actual run time was over.

Predictable
As is all too common with movies this one offers slick hype, but with little substance. I found myself "seeing" the next scene and the movie's conclusion before each occurred. A real yawner.

The original "The Juror"
The plot of this movie is unmatched. Excellent acting to blend. Rusty Parone (Armand Assante, Gotti) cannot be touched. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

pretty freakin' bad
The only reason this gets more than ONE star is because Elizabeth Mitchell is spellbinding in almost everything i've seen her in - just forward it to the moments she's on screen - well worth the admission!

Bottom of the Barrel
Even if you give this movie the benefit of the doubt and assume it was _trying_ to be bad--trying to reinvograte the "B" flick genre, it's still terrible.

The writing is bad. The Baldwin brothers both provide mailed-in, vanilla performances. Tons of gratuitious violence are lost against a plot that's not at all engaging.

The lighthing tries to give a sense of place, but fails miserably. The extras aren't even handled well. This movie will take 105 minutes away from your life and you'll never get them back.

Better than I expected....Jon Seda steals the show!
"Double Bang" opens with the murder of police detective Vinnie Krailes (Adam Baldwin), who manages to finger his killer for his former partner Billy Brennan (William -- no relation -- Baldwin) before he expires. A series of somewhat tedious flashbacks follow which reveal that Vinnie was a dirty cop on the take from the mob. Brennan, who admittedly has "gotten dirty" a few times himself, magically sprouts a set of ethics and decides to avenge his ex-partner's death.

Enter flashy Salvatorre Piscaterre a.k.a. "Sally the Fish" (a highly entertaining turn by Jon Seda, who steals all his scenes and nabs the best lines), the baby-faced mobster who took out the hit on Vinnie. Sally sees his world not as a place where people either break the law or enforce it, but as an elaborate game where the best player on the field wins. For example, when Sally gets roughed up by the police, he literally takes his punches and chalks it up just as one of the costs of doing business. And having a dirty cop offed is nothing personal -- it's just a management decision meant to downsize his operation. Everyone's a player, and no one should be trusted.

So it comes as no surprise to Sally when Brennan finds an unlikely ally in Sally's Uncle Frankie (John Capodice), the local mob boss who is handed an ultimatum by the vengeful detective. Frankie, himself a prudent businessman, must decide whether to protect his impulsive nephew and risk giving up his entire operation to the Feds, or give up Sally and be seen as a snitch by his Family. In the end, Frankie devises a clever way to give satisfaction to all the parties involved.

In a slightly distracting subplot, Elizabeth Mitchell (here, incidentally, almost a dead-ringer for Carrie-Anne Moss) plays the conflicted Dr. Karen Winterman, a psychologist who has an ill-fated affair with one of her patients and manages to get caught up in the mess between Sally and Brennan.

To sum up, this movie is rather more cerebral than the average cops-and-robbers offering, and tries to flesh out each character's motivations instead of just presenting two-dimensional cliches. The pacing is a bit slow and uneven in places, so do not expect to see a shoot-em-up action flick. In the end, it was easier to respect the villains, who were willing to live and die by the sword so to speak, than to sympathize with the crooked cops who took bribes when it was convenient but got all self-righteous when things not surprisingly turned sour for them. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

pretty freakin' bad
The only reason this gets more than ONE star is because Elizabeth Mitchell is spellbinding in almost everything i've seen her in - just forward it to the moments she's on screen - well worth the admission!

Bottom of the Barrel
Even if you give this movie the benefit of the doubt and assume it was _trying_ to be bad--trying to reinvograte the "B" flick genre, it's still terrible.

The writing is bad. The Baldwin brothers both provide mailed-in, vanilla performances. Tons of gratuitious violence are lost against a plot that's not at all engaging.

The lighthing tries to give a sense of place, but fails miserably. The extras aren't even handled well. This movie will take 105 minutes away from your life and you'll never get them back.

Better than I expected....Jon Seda steals the show!
"Double Bang" opens with the murder of police detective Vinnie Krailes (Adam Baldwin), who manages to finger his killer for his former partner Billy Brennan (William -- no relation -- Baldwin) before he expires. A series of somewhat tedious flashbacks follow which reveal that Vinnie was a dirty cop on the take from the mob. Brennan, who admittedly has "gotten dirty" a few times himself, magically sprouts a set of ethics and decides to avenge his ex-partner's death.

Enter flashy Salvatorre Piscaterre a.k.a. "Sally the Fish" (a highly entertaining turn by Jon Seda, who steals all his scenes and nabs the best lines), the baby-faced mobster who took out the hit on Vinnie. Sally sees his world not as a place where people either break the law or enforce it, but as an elaborate game where the best player on the field wins. For example, when Sally gets roughed up by the police, he literally takes his punches and chalks it up just as one of the costs of doing business. And having a dirty cop offed is nothing personal -- it's just a management decision meant to downsize his operation. Everyone's a player, and no one should be trusted.

So it comes as no surprise to Sally when Brennan finds an unlikely ally in Sally's Uncle Frankie (John Capodice), the local mob boss who is handed an ultimatum by the vengeful detective. Frankie, himself a prudent businessman, must decide whether to protect his impulsive nephew and risk giving up his entire operation to the Feds, or give up Sally and be seen as a snitch by his Family. In the end, Frankie devises a clever way to give satisfaction to all the parties involved.

In a slightly distracting subplot, Elizabeth Mitchell (here, incidentally, almost a dead-ringer for Carrie-Anne Moss) plays the conflicted Dr. Karen Winterman, a psychologist who has an ill-fated affair with one of her patients and manages to get caught up in the mess between Sally and Brennan.

To sum up, this movie is rather more cerebral than the average cops-and-robbers offering, and tries to flesh out each character's motivations instead of just presenting two-dimensional cliches. The pacing is a bit slow and uneven in places, so do not expect to see a shoot-em-up action flick. In the end, it was easier to respect the villains, who were willing to live and die by the sword so to speak, than to sympathize with the crooked cops who took bribes when it was convenient but got all self-righteous when things not surprisingly turned sour for them. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Pullman perfect, HBO sells him short
HBO needs to stick to showing other people's movies and give up on making their own. Bill Pullman (While You Were Sleeping) gives it his best shot in this unrealistic movie of a cop holding prisoners at gun point in a courtroom and letting the whole world see it on television. It's a sad sign of the times. Another great actor that didn't get used well was Robert Loggia (Big). Great talent needs to work to become better. This movie justs makes you wish they didn't have to do movies like this to perfect their craft.

Raw Deal
Bill Pullman plays a cop who angry at the acquittal of a cop killer takes over the courtroom and begins his own trial. Brilliant performances by Pullman and Robert Loggia as the captain.

This Is A Mistrail.
The Movie is Great Bill Pullman Is So Hot In The Movie And On The Cover I Love Him With A Gun. ... Read more