Internal Affairs

The subject here (police corruption) is banal, but it gains extra value and weight by Figgis' atmospheric direction and, especially, by Richard Gere's powerful performance in perhaps his most atypical role (and as far as I know, his only truly villainous one). After watching him in this film, I don't know how some people can still doubt that he's a talented actor as well an attractive star. The rest of the cast is also good. The finale, however, is somewhat disappointing. (**1/2)

Internal Affairs is a thriller with a lot of nerve. It takes risks, presenting the audience with a grim and violent story of police corruption. It doesn't care if you like it or hate it, just that it does its job of getting under your skin. The main reason the movie is so effective is because of Richard Gere's powerhouse performance. It caught me off guard, since before I saw it I'd always seen him as the hero or love interest, far from the territory he's in here. I'll get more into Gere's performance later, just let me clear up the plot.

Gere is Dennis Peck, respected vice cop, father and husband, determined to do the job. Oh, he's also the dirtiest cop on the force. He plants evidence, shoots suspects, sets up his fellow officers, doing it all without a shed of remorse. The hero of the movie is Raymond Avila (Andy Garcia), newly assigned to the Internal Affairs division of the LAPD and a friend of Peck's partner, Van Stretch (Stephen Baldwin). When Stretch introduces Peck and Avila it's obvious they don't like each other. Not getting along becomes an understatement as Avila starts to uncover Peck's corrupt behavior and looks to put a stop to it. But Peck won't go down without a fight, and he'll do whatever he can to keep Internal Affairs off his back.

As far as police thrillers go, Internal Affairs is one of the meaner kind. Rather than put us into the normal day of a cop it decides to put us into the normal day of bad cop, a really bad cop. This is a guy who would kill a man for stepping on his shoe. He'd probably kill his family too, and laugh while he was doing it. Think I'm exaggerating? Not so much. Peck is the embodiment of all the bad guys in police thrillers and none of the cops in them.

Of all of the actors you could find to play a guy like this, who would have guessed that a likable actor like Richard Gere would ever fit the bill. Does he ever. He gives that kind of against type performance we see a lot from normally good guy actors. We've seen it from Denzel Washington (Training Day), Tom Cruise (Collateral), and Robin Williams (Insomnia) in the past few years. Each of these guys have given performances that have altogether changed how we see them as actors. Gere is no exception here. He seems to be having a blast too, chewing the scenery every chance he gets.

He's surrounded by some good supporting work. Andy Garcia gives Avila a kind of determination you'd expect from a guy who's life has been wrecked by a guy like Peck. As his partner, Laurie Metcalf is likable and isn't as wasted as she could have been.

But when it all comes down to it, this is Gere's show, and he shines in his only truly villainous role to date. He probably had enough of playing the villain by the time he was done with this movie. That would make sense. After playing a guy like Dennis Peck, any actor would need time off from playing the bad guy. I'd like to see Gere play the bad guy again though, and give us another surprising and terrifically evil performance.

Meet Dennis Peck, a real live sociopath. And he's got a badge and a gun. This character might be one of the most truly evil creations in the movies. On the surface, he seems like a terrific guy, a wonderful dad who plays with his kids on his days off. Even his ex-wives like him. But he's used his influence and his skill at manipulating people to create a virtual empire of wealth and power. Andy Garcia is excellent as Raymond Avila, who stumbles across this web and begins to dismantle it. The level of supporting actors is fantastic, much better than most movies. Standouts include Nancy Travis as Andy's wife, Laurie ("Roseanne") Metcalf as his partner, and a young William Baldwin as Peck's partner. I rate this movie 8 out of 10.

In Internal Affairs LAPD cop Andy Garcia finds himself transferred there and finds out despite the snow job given him, it's quite true nobody likes these people in the department. He's going to be even less popular because his first assignment with new partner Laurie Metcalf is to investigate William Baldwin, a guy he went through the Academy with.

Baldwin's got a load of brutality complaints against him. He suspects his wife Faye Grant of being unfaithful which turns out to be the case. However Garcia's and Metcalf's investigation of Baldwin leads to uncovering a hole host of illegal activities linked to his partner Richard Gere.

Gere in this film has one of the most amoral characters ever put on celluloid. His corruption goes way beyond just taking a few dollars to fix parking tickets. In fact he's corrupted a whole slew of his fellow officers without a bit of remorse.

Garcia also has a lot of issues and might not be the best guy in the world to take Gere down. Gere presses a lot of Andy's buttons, one of the things that makes him so dangerous is that he is a master psychologist without a degree.

Although Internal Affairs gets a bit too melodramatic at times, the cast performs well in their roles and fans of Richard Gere and Andy Garcia should definitely see this.

I have never quite seen a movie like this before. In it, Richard Gere plays his most sinister role and I think his best character in years. There are many disturbing elements in this film and most of them are perpetrated by Richard Gere's Dennis Peck. He knows how to manipulate people to get what he wants and if that doesn't work he uses other measures.

The story goes like this: Richard Gere plays a cop that everyone owes a favour to. He is everyone's friend and everyone's silent worst enemy. He also lives a little above his income should allow him too and this is why he is being investigated by internal affairs. Enter Andy Garcia as Raymond, in a mesmerizing performance. These two know they are going to square off in the film and Peck has fun tormenting him.

Peck is a charismatic, good looking, wealthy play boy. He knows how to use what he has to his advantage, and that eventually means playing with Raymond's head to make him think that he is sleeping with his wife. Did I mention that he is intuitive? And this is established so brilliantly in one of their first meetings together that it makes you cringe.

Peck introduces himself to Raymond and at first he seems very co-operative assuring Raymond that he realizes Ray has a job to do just like he does. But the conversation takes an abrupt turn when Peck begins to hit too close to home when he begins to question how good Raymond's love life is right now. He knows he spends too much time at the office and that he has a beautiful, young wife that may be neglected. The scene works beautifully and sets up the psychological battle that takes place between the two as the film goes on. The next scene they have with each other is enough to make every man cringe at the cruelty of it.

Internal Affairs is a character study at it's finest. There are few films out there that can compare to this one and that can be attributed to the director, Mike Figgis. He hits every note perfectly and the performances he gets from his cast is such a joy to watch. I am surprised that Andy Garcia hasn't gone on to be bigger than he is because he was outstanding here.

This is an absolute must see for anyone that hasn't had the pleasure of doing so yet. But beware, there are some scenes that will get under your skin, especially if you spend too much time at the office and you have a beautiful woman waiting for you at home. What is she doing right now? Who is she with? Are you paranoid or are your concerns real? This film has fun with that paranoia.