Cop Land
Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 21
  3. Negative: 1 out of 21
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  1. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    90
    Everywhere the camera turns in this tense and volatile drama, it finds enough interest for a truckload of conventional Hollywood fare. Whatever its limitations, Cop Land has talent to burn.
  2. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    89
    Casting is everything, and the casting of Stallone -- playing way against type -- as the powerless hayseed sheriff in Cop Land is nothing short of inspired.
  3. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    80
    Cop Land emerges as a first-rate morality play in the form of an effective, if occasionally unwieldy, crime drama.
  4. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    80
    The movie's no roller-coaster ride, but there isn't a boring moment either.
  5. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    Branching out in a bold new direction, Stallone is quietly devastating. James Mangold has directed Cop Land from his own ardent, audacious script, and despite some draggy, overdeliberate moments, it's the strongest piece of material to come Stallone's way since he invented himself as Rocky 21 years ago.
  6. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    James Mangold follows up the promise of his excellent "Heavy" with this smartly written, superbly acted melodrama.
  7. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    Cop Land isn't a perfect piece, but it's sober, wise and adult.
  8. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    While this is probably the actor's best turn since Rocky, and he does a credible job that may earn him the opportunity to do more "serious" work in the future, Stallone's performance is outshone on all sides. That's not a knock against him; it's an acknowledgment that the supporting cast is about the best that it can be.
  9. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    75
    A good film prevented from being a great film by an act of well-intentioned but misguided casting.
  10. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    70
    It's formulaic, but it sticks to a classic Western formula instead of a cartoonish blockbuster one.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    70
    The increasingly broad strokes with which the story is painted serve to simplify rather than deepen it, and to make it seem more artificially constructed than need be.
  12. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    Dense, meandering, ambitious yet jarringly pulpy, this tale of big-city corruption in small-town America has competence without mood or power -- a design but not a vision.
  13. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Sandra Contreras
    60
    Writer-director James Mangold has surrounded Stallone with an exceptional ensemble cast, and Sly is smart enough to let the actors do the acting.
  14. Empire
    Reviewed by: Ian Freer
    60
    An honourable attempt to return the mainstream thriller to a more serious, intelligent vein, yet ultimately lacks the complexity of characterisation, dense subterfuge and overall feeling of weightiness that separates the great from the good.
  15. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    60
    Unfortunately, while Stallone can carry the weight, the movie can't. Too much of it is too busy -- too many undeveloped subplots -- and some of the main plotting feels murky.
  16. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    The characters are all over the map, there are too many unclear story threads, our sympathies are confused, and there's an unconvincing showdown in which the story's lovingly developed ambiguities are lost.
  17. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Barbara Shulgasser
    50
    Cop Land presents a fairly involved plot, and Mangold is not equipped to do more than blurt all the information onto the screen and let the nuances settle where they may.
  18. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Jack Kroll
    50
    Mangold is something of a pseudo-Scorsese, assembling elements of other pictures like "Internal Affairs" and "Bad Lieutenant" into an eclectic mix that lacks its own vital reality.
  19. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    40
    Mangold never ventures beyond the obvious. We're set up with righteous anger against the liberal establishment and then fobbed off with goombah melodramatics. The film should be called Cop Out.
  20. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    40
    Although the newly paunchy Stallone is credible as a weak, conflicted small-time sheriff, this suburban "Serpico" is a noble, passionless charade.
  21. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    30
    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.

User Reviews

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User Score
7.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 20 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. oliver1h
    8
    A slow and rather realistic police drama with great performances from Keitel, Stallone, Liotta, De Niro. Recommended.
  2. wololooo
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Cop Land presents us with an interesting premise - in a town just across the river from Manhattan, a closely-knit group of NYPD detectives have founded a town built as a mostly crime-free haven for their families. Behind the calm appearance of the town, however, is a deep web of corruption. When hero cop "Superboy" accidentally guns down two black teenagers, he is whisked away under the illusion of a suicide, and the rest of the films follows the attempts of an IA detective (De Niro) to uncover the conspiracy.
    The town's Sherrif, played by Stallone, pulls no real weight and is well past his prime, but he is effectively the only man who can blow the whistle on the operation. Stallone gives a very toned-down performance, much less narcissistic and self-indulgent than many of his previous roles. Keitel, De Niro and especially Liotta are all great, as are the rest of the supporting cast, making the most of the inconsistent dialogue. The narrative plays out in a very real and human way, with little over-dramatization or mindless action sequences, which I thought definitely added to the film. There's a huge amount of characters and subplots, and because of this many were quite undeveloped and I was left with some unanswered questions that I felt could easily have been answered. The final shootout seems lazily shot and edited, giving what I thought was a somewhat underwhelming finish to what was a huge buildup. Aside from these flaws however, Cop Land was a very entertaining film, and while it didn't blow me away it certainly outdid my expectations.    … Full Review »
  3. stallonefan80
    10
    Whoever says Stallone cant act is full of it.Hes proven time and again and in this one he hangs with the big dogs like Deniro and Harvey Kietel.A Amazing Movie!… Full Review »
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