Pur et dur

One Tough Cop was a film that had one of the best trailers I've ever seen. It made the film look like a fascinating and powerful police drama. The film however did not get even close to the expectations of the trailer. It wasn't bad however. Just not great. Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects, Fled) stars as a police officer whose best friends are all involved in the Mob. Despite a great record, he gets framed by Internal Affairs and has to decide between his friends or his job. Chris Penn (Deceiver, The Funeral) is very good in support as Baldwin's very much in debt partner. Gina Gershon (Face/Off, Palmetto) is ok as the love interest. But the film's biggest strength lies in Stephen Baldwin. Baldwin is one of the most underrated actors in my mind (mainly because of poor career choices), but here he delivers a strong performance that brings the film through all of its predictability. Recommended for Baldwin's performance mainly.

...this would have been better off as an HBO or Showtime Original, but I liked the biographical look at rogue New York Cop Bo Deitl. I confess, I heard him on the Howard Stern Show, and thought he was notes, but the movie is tightly and carefully plotted and the characters were believable. If the film has a fault, the plot is almost too tight. Good performances by Stephen Baldwin, Gina Gershon, and Mike McGlone. I liked the opening sequence okay as well. Come on, it's a cop movie, and a decent one at that.

Another story about a cop (Bo Dietl) that tries to do his job while still hanging on to his friends from the neighborhood. The fact that they are all mobsters gives the FBI an opportunity to blackmail him into working for them. He refuses and almost loses his badge.

Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects) play Dietl, trying to stay clear of the slime played by Amy Irving and Victor Slezak. Why she would take that role is beyond me. It stunk!

Of course, we have to have a hot babe, and who better to play that role that Gina Gershon (Bound, Love Matters, Sweet Revenge).

It was interesting seeing Captain Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) playing a gangster role.

Based on a true character, it was OK, but you can probably find something better to watch.

The New York policeman Stephen Baldwin partied with his childhood friend, the mafioso Mike McGlone. Their complicity draws the attention of FBI... Inspired by the life of the policeman Bo Dietl, this muscular whodunit interpreted by Stephen Baldwin ("The Usual Suspects") brushes a bitter and violent picture of the daily life in the New York police. The first quarter of an hour let augur a robust detective, bitter and restless film. But the continuation does not hold the initial promises. The intrigue, badly tied up, suffers from the Stephen Baldwin's transparent interpretation.

top rate young turk actors, stephen baldwin and chris penn turn in painfully wooden portrayals of stereotypic undercover cops, baldwin: haunted good cop w/mafia boyhood friend and Penn: liqour/gambling addicted cop w/fatalist attitude...the FBI squeeze play is totally contrived, hackneyed and never advances the plot, the love interest sub-plot is under-developed and equally stilted...possibly the foreign (art film) director couldn't handle the material and/or properly motivate the cast...the subject matter and identical rape of a nun was masterfully done in "Bad Lieutenant" starring Harvey Keitel