Maverick detective Lloyd Hopkins (James Woods) stumbles upon a serial killer that has been undiscovered until now when he discovers a crime scene involving ritualistic style murder. Tied into a network of swingers, the killer taunts Hopkins by writing letters ostensibly addressed to his victims but really designated for the police. Just as he is about to put the pieces together the pieces of his personal life fall apart when his wife leaves him ("you're a sick man") with their daughter because she's afraid he'll pass along his "sickness" to their daughter. Equal parts brilliant, defiant and unorthodox Hopkins isn't a likeable man but he doesn't have to be; he's a typical hardboiled screwed up anti-hero. He may not be somebody you like but he has a clear idea of right and justice. Hopkins must pursue the leads himself when solving this case becomes his personal obsession.
"Cop" is as brilliant, unorthodox and defiant as its main character. Producer/director James B. Harris doesn't allow the material to get away from him and James Woods. Playing like a darker more serious variation on the Dirty Harry films, Harris and Woods don't stoop to imitation and plow their own ground planting the seeds of an involving, powerful and sometimes unpleasant murder mystery. A cult classic, "Cop" finally reappears and will hopefully get its due as an uncompromising and powerful crime drama that doesn't shy away from the nasty side of the street nor does it try to gussy up the drama. A unknown classic much like (although quite different in tone from) "Night Moves", fans of noir films will love this adaptation of James Ellroy's ("L. A. Confidential") novel.
Although it doesn't receive a top notch transfer, "Cop" looks extremely good. The images are crisp throughout most of the movie and while there is a hint of edge enhancement that crops up now and again the film looks, for the most part, like it should-dark. As a modern day variation on film noir, the film has just the right texture and feel for the genre with deep, rich shadows and muted colors. The 2.0 Dolby Digital Surround track is pretty basic-the stereo effects work quite well but aren't always used to optimal effect. Still, the action sequences and scenes where the score take center stage sound robust and have a nice kick to them.
Beyond previews we don't any extras. The audience for this film is so small its unlikely that it will probably receive the attention its due unless a company like Anchor Bay licenses it at some point. Including the original theatrical trailer would have been a nice touch and I'm surprised that MGM chose not to include it as part of the package.
There isn't a commentary track here. It's unfortunate because the movie certainly could use a commentary track from Woods or Harris. Which Harris shooting "The Black Dahlia" (as producer with Brian De Palma directing based on another James Ellroy novel) hopefully we'll see this reissued with something in the way of commentary or extras.
A marvelous dark film that won't be everyone's cup of tea, "Cop" is a worthwhile film. The transfer is solid without analog flaws. It's a pity that "Cop" doesn't have any extras but it has a fairly small audience.
This is Woods, James Woods
This is one of the best cop movies ever made. I didn't get to see this thing until maybe five years ago and it was purely accidental. I couldn't believe I had missed such a great flick. James Woods is just so classic in this. Everything is just gritty as hell. It's all straight to the point. Just look at the title. One of the best endings to a movie I've ever seen, and only Woods could pull it off. Just...just plain good from beginning to end. He plays a guy you just love to watch. How he relates to his family and fellow officers, his kid, his wife (he hates)...and his drive and passion to find the bad guy and end things quick and dirty. Dirty Harry met his match with this guy. To think it's coming out on DVD now, and just now! What the hell is that about? Movies like this should be bumped up on the list for DVD production without question.
Woods' delivery of body language, sarcasm, force of will, whit, and general manner is unmatched by many of today's "tough guys." Watch the master at work here. After the final scene when the screen flashes to black (it doesn't fade at all, which works perfectly), I literally yelled out loud with a clenched fist in the air, "Hell Yeah!"
If you liked the attitude in Mel Gibson's Payback, you'll eat this one up alive.
An old favorite, at last on DVD
The real charm of this movie isn't so much the plot (which is not bad) but in watching the real topic of the film--the self-destructiveness of the main character, played by James Woods. Sort of a movie within a movie.
Walker (Lee Marvin) strides through Los Angeles with the steel-eyed stare of a stone-cold killer, or perhaps a ghost. Betrayed by his wife and best friend, who gun him down point-blank and leave him for dead after a successful heist, Walker blasts his way up the criminal food chain in a quest for revenge. Did he survive the shooting or return from the grave, or is it all a dying dream? The question is left in the air in John Boorman's modern film noir, a brutal revenge thriller based on Richard Stark's novel The Hunter (remade by Brian Helgeland as Payback), set in the impersonal concrete and steel canyons of Los Angeles and eerily empty cells of Alcatraz. Walker kills without remorse, guided by shadowy "informant" Keenan Wynn, whose own agenda is carefully concealed, and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lee Marvin - Angie Dickinson Director(s): John Boorman DVD Release Date: Released the 05 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This vastly underrated Arthur Penn film from the mid-1970s ranks as one of the era's nastiest and most fascinating pieces of business, a detective story that shuttles back and forth between Hollywood and the Florida Keys, with a plot nearly as complex as Chinatown. Gene Hackman stars as a tired, aging private eye who, as a favor to a friend, agrees to track down a runaway teen. But the case turns out to be something much larger: a smuggling ring of Mayan antiquities. The human impulses get darker and darker and Hackman's character gets pulled in deeper and deeper, even as his own life is falling apart. Ultimately, in one of his best and most unsung performances, Hackman winds up hurting the people he is trying to help. A great cast includes Susan Clark, Jennifer Warren, a young... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Hackman - Jennifer Warren Director(s): Arthur Penn DVD Release Date: Released the 12 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Prime Cut is a strangely likeable if decidedly oddball thriller from 1972. A happy collision of gangster genre grit (validated by Lee Marvin's granite-faced lead performance) with a strain of shameless (though shrewd) exploitation not unfamiliar to screenwriter Robert Dillon (X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes), plus the kinetic, semi-documentary wit of director Michael Ritchie (The Candidate) makes Prime Cut both a straightforward noir and a satire of itself. Marvin plays Nick, an aging enforcer for the Chicago mob, sent to Kansas City to deal with a ruthless cattle baron (Gene Hackman) who owes a half-million to Windy City racketeers. Hackman's character (inexplicably named Mary Ann), dismissive of old-guard crime chieftains, has set up his own heartland empire... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lee Marvin - Gene Hackman - Sissy Spacek Director(s): Michael Ritchie DVD Release Date: Released the 14 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Mixing action, humor, sentiment, and even a few righteous moral convictions, The Wild Geese is good, rousing fun. Released theatrically in 1978 (oddly, this 2005 DVD release is referred to as the "30th Anniversary Edition"), director Andrew V. McLaglen’s film depicts the adventures of a group of British mercenaries hired by a shady multinational corporation to free the benevolent leader of an African nation held captive by a ruthless dictator. Led by the caustic, no-nonsense Col. Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton), these soldiers of fortune are all stout fellows out to earn a big payday and restore a good man to his rightful place of power (the underlying message of universal racial brotherhood is effective, if somewhat simplistic), and they do their job swiftly and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Burton - Roger Moore - Richard Harris - Hardy Krüger - Stewart Granger Director(s): Andrew V. McLaglen DVD Release Date: Released the 27 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack's 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nicole Kidman - Sean Penn - Catherine Keener Director(s): Sydney Pollack DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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