Metacritic reviews

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.

Cop Land emerges as a first-rate morality play in the form of an effective, if occasionally unwieldy, crime drama.

The movie's no roller-coaster ride, but there isn't a boring moment either.

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.

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.

Cop Land isn't a perfect piece, but it's sober, wise and adult.

It's formulaic, but it sticks to a classic Western formula instead of a cartoonish blockbuster one.

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.

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.

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.