Who hates the Departed? EVERYONE!
IGN has done a list of the top ten Bad Cop movies. Most of the list is okay, but it's not particularly energetic.
10. Leon: The ProfessionalLeon (Jean Reno) is a cleaner. A hitman. A professional killer. Mathilda (Natalie Portman) is a little girl with attitude. Not exactly a combo you'd expect in a classic, but life is all about surprises. Their lives become intertwined when a group of corrupt cops (led by the delightfully over-the-top Gary Oldman) kill her drug-dealing father and her family. Mathilda arrives on the scene after the fact while the cops are still there and Leon saves her life by letting her into his apartment down the hall.
The sacrifice by the reclusive assassin is far from cut and dried. By saving her, the complications are too many to ignore and he must choose to accept her into his life or add her to his extensive list of victims.
What follows is a combination of insight into the hit-man business, a look at police corruption, and most importantly, a pseudo-love story where every aspect is wrong except the bond between a cold-blooded killer and a very young girl. This story could have traversed a very dangerous moral boundary (it did start a very wide-based, near-scary appreciation of Portman from men across the globe), but somehow it doesn't cross the point of bad taste.
9. Magnum ForceClint Eastwood reprises his role as "Dirty" Harry Callahan, a rugged detective hot on the trail of a series of crooked cops that feel as if they can break the law in order to bring justice down a lot harder than they have the rights to.
When a trio of motorcycle troopers take to gunning down criminals without regard for evidence or due process, Dirty Harry must rise to protect the system that he's been known to circumvent. Magnum Force presents an interesting mirror to the original Dirty Harry by creating villains who challenge Callahan's reluctance to let the law stand between justice and injustice. Harry must not only look inward to identify the blurry line between right and wrong, but must navigate the social and governmental politics of San Francisco.
Scripted by John Milius, Magnum Force maintains the delicate blend of action and drama of Dirty Harry, yet serves to examine and comment upon themes only hinted at in the first film. It's not as effective as its predecessor – the villains aren't nearly as remarkable – but it's about something, which is a claim many modern-day sequels can't rightfully make.
8. Cop LandSylvester Stallone plays Sheriff Freddy Heflin, a would-be NYPD officer except he's deaf in one ear. So as a favor, he's given the sheriff's job in tiny Garrison, N.J., just across the George Washington Bridge. City laws in New York require police to live in the city, which they couldn't afford, but thanks to a loophole, they took part-time gigs with the transit authority, which extended its reach into Jersey, allowing their escape.
Thanks to a Mob-connected officer affectionately known as Uncle Ray (Harvey Keitel), they all have cheap mortgages for their homes. The city is so full of cops it's called Cop Land. Freddy's job is hardly difficult. Who in the world is going to start trouble in a city almost entirely populated by police officers?
Internal Affairs, led by Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro), gets to work. But there's more soap opera. Another cop, Figgis (Ray Liotta), has his problems with Ray while Freddy has issues with Joey Randone (Peter Berg) and to a lesser degree his wife Liz (Annabella Sciorra). Cop Land is essentially a western about a deputy who has to clean up a dirty town, complete with a shootout ending.
7. Internal Affairs (now they're just asking for teh rage)Dennis Peck (Richard Gere) is a savvy and manipulative Los Angeles Police Department patrolman who has a little dirt on nearly all of his colleagues. He is soon targeted by dedicated, young Internal Affairs detective Raymond Avila (Andy Garcia) because he lives above his means.
The devious Peck, however, turns the tables on Avila and starts playing mind-games with him. Avila even starts to believe that Peck has seduced his wife Kathleen (Nancy Travis), and he grows increasingly agitated the closer he gets to busting the veteran officer.
Mike Figgis directed Internal Affairs from a screenplay by Henry Bean (Deep Cover, Basic Instinct 2)
6. Training DayThis gritty cop drama takes place during the course of one long, hellish day in the life of two LAPD officers. Former high school football star Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) has only been on the force for a short while when he's assigned to an anti-drug unit in the Rampart Division of the LAPD, which covers some of the city's nastiest high-crime sections. On this fateful day, Hoyt will be shown the ropes by Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris (Oscar winner Denzel Washington) -- a 13-year veteran whose tactics and ethics are more than a little bit questionable.
Hoyt will lose his innocence during the course of this single day because of what Alonzo exposes him to. He realizes that his boy scout values are not as rock solid as he'd originally thought; many of his mentor's street lessons make more sense than he cares to admit.
Alonzo and Hoyt cruise around the L.A. netherworld in his "G-Ride," encountering various gangstas, victims, dealers, snitches, and "civilians." Along the way, we learn more about Alonzo's fall from grace, his morally dubious private life, and his explosive secret plan that involves Jake.
5. Bad LieutenantAn unnamed homicide detective (Harvey Keitel) is in a downward spiral of drugs, booze, gambling, and hookers when he begins investigating the brutal rape of a nun. This case may be his last shot at redemption before the bookies he owes a small fortune to decide to settle his bill for him. No illicit behavior is too low for "The Bad Lieutenant" to stoop to; he even spanks himself in front of traffic offenders!
Abel Ferrara (King of New York) directed this 1992 indie classic, which has spawned the 2009 follow-up Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Nicolas Cage plays the titular rogue cop in that Werner Herzog-directed film, which is neither a remake nor a re-imagining of the 1992 movie. Who would have thought that Bad Lieutenant would have spawned a franchise?
4. Touch of EvilWhile on his honeymoon with Susan (Janet Leigh), Mexican-born narc Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) is pulled into a bombing investigation. What he finds instead is the wrath of local police chief Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles, who also directed) -- a bloated bully whose perfect arrest record is just the first hint of his inherent corruption. When Vargas proves too determined to see a framed bombing suspect receive justice, Quinlan retaliates against Vargas by targeting his wife.
This virtuoso Film Noir is widely considered Welles' other masterpiece besides Citizen Kane. Welles, true to form, lost control of the film eventually, re-shoots were conducted, and a cut that the director wasn't terribly happy with was released. But over the years, as Welles began to regain the respect of cineastes -- especially after his death -- an interest in his cut of the film grew, and finally this take on Touch of Evil was released in 1998.
Heston usually gets looked over when this picture is discussed, serving as little more than a punch line because of his character's nationality and skin color. But it's noteworthy that the actor was eager to pursue other types of films early in his stardom. He was not content in the years following The Ten Commandments to simply sit on his Moses laurels and make biblical epic after biblical epic, and he apparently recognized the genius in Welles that was not so readily acknowledged in 1958 Hollywood. The result is a great film that has and will continue to stand the test of time.
3. Some Shitty Scorsese Film
2. SerpicoThis fact-based 1974 cop drama is based on Peter Maas' book about NYPD officer Frank Serpico (Al Pacino). Serpico began his career as a wide-eyed idealist but quickly becomes disillusioned and angered by the corruption he finds within the force. Becoming an unorthodox "lone wolf" plain clothes narc, Serpico only stirs up more trouble for himself when he won't accept bribes, a noble action that makes his fellow detectives distrust him all the more.
Pushed to his breaking point, Serpico soon agrees to cooperate with the authorities who are out to rid the NYPD of its graft. That fateful decision nearly costs Serpico his life when he's shot in the face in the line of duty and his fellow narcs do little to help him.
Director Sidney Lumet cornered the market on films about corruption in the NYPD, thanks to Serpico and his subsequent films Prince of the City, Q&A, and Night Falls on Manhattan, all of which feature some pretty reprehensible boys in blue.
1. L.A. ConfidentialThis Neo-Noir gem based on James Ellroy's novel recreates the underbelly of glitzy 1950s Los Angeles. LAPD Lt. Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) and Officer Bud White (Russell Crowe) initially hate each other, but when their parallel investigations into the Nite Owl Massacre leads them to a massive conspiracy within their department, they set aside their differences to find the truth and attain justice. Exley's a born politician who uses his "hero status" to get promoted; White's not as dumb as he seems and is a man you don't want to tick off. With Exley's brains and White's brawn, they crack a case that could bring the LAPD to its knees.
Meanwhile, "Hollywood Jack" Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is a vice cop who is in cahoots with a tabloid publisher (Danny DeVito) when he's not serving as a technical consultant on a cop TV show. Jack's own investigation ties in with Exley and White's case but it leads to his doom. Oscar-winner Kim Basinger portrays Lynn, a hooker caught up in the conspiracy who falls for Bud but toys with Exley.
Maybe it's the fact that he carries an aura of grandfatherly warmth or that he played the lead in Babe, but Capt. Dudley (James Cromwell) looks like the last person to be a corrupt cop. Which makes his betrayal all the more brutal and surprising, proving himself to be one of the "Rollo Tomasi." Granted, Dudley was more diabolical in the book, but the new cinematic take lends itself to an equally memorable persona. Whereas you could typically spot dirty cops quickly in most movies, this one takes you by startling surprise. Nance on......
