This begins with a cop routine, good cop who is there for his cohorts and his friend, a bad apple in the force who beats his wife and is being investigated by IA for excessive use of force, but it's the halfway turn towards noir that is the most interesting.They pull two threads from classic noir. We have a homme (not femme) fatale in the 'good cop' who now we see seduces wives and weaves an insidious influence in the lives of those around him, a sociopath who capriciously strides morality for the pleasure of control. The private dick is here the IA freshcut who is determined to bring him in, but he's turned into the hapless noir schmuck who loses sight of reality and succumbs to paranoid hallucination. Is his own wife being seduced?The idea is that when he sees the two of them having lunch or when he's taunted and beaten by him in the escalator, that these impressions exist in a tentative reality of the anxious mind losing control. The filmmaker knows as much and later gives us obviously hallucinated impressions of the two of them making out in his mind. But altogether it's always more obvious than I'd like.This is a neo-noir (not post noir which is a different beast) and better than those that just hang 40s hats and trenchcoats in new faces to give us color re-enactments of old noir. But it's also one of those films (Lethal Weapon is another) where you can plainly see noir being subsumed by action thriller dynamics. It will come down to viewer preference for how elusive or tight you want these to be, this one tries to grip more than swim.Noir Meter: 2/4

(Credit IMDb) Keen young Raymond Avila joins the Internal Affairs Department of the Los Angeles police. He and partner Amy Wallace are soon looking closely at the activities of cop Dennis Peck whose financial holdings start to suggest something shady. Indeed Peck is involved in any number of dubious or downright criminal activities. He is also devious, a womanizer, and a clever manipulator, and he starts to turn his attention on Avila.Everyone talks about how good Richard Gere is in this movie. He is solid, but if you wanna see how good he can be with an underhanded type of role, watch Arbitrage. That movie is far more suspenseful. This one kept putting me to sleep. I had a lot of trouble paying attention. I like dark cop thrillers, but this one is so murky and dreary. There is nobody to root for. Andy Garcia isn't exactly likable himself. Everyone has a right to their opinions, so feel free to check this one out. It wasn't for me3/10

Right before Pretty Woman (1990), Gere played smarmy, womanizing, multi-divorced, prick LA street cop, Dennis Peck, taking money from the likes of pimps and drug-dealers in order to provide for his four wives and nine (!) kids. Peck likes to spread the seed around. He's in for a rude awakening when young Hispanic Internal Affairs agent, Raymond Avilla (Andy Garcia) investigates Peck's partner, Van Stretch (William Baldwyn), prone to violent outbursts and other criminal activities. Avilla wants Peck and hopes to get Van to turn on him. Peck not only takes money for prostitution and drugs but also negotiates executions, as is the case with a businessman's parents! Peck isn't about to not only take money and arrange gangbangers to execute the businessman's parents but feels free to bang the guy's wife as well! When Peck realizes the threat to his livelihood, he makes it a mission to torment Avilla, provoking his jealousy in regards to a wife (a smokin' Nancy Travis; I'm telling you, Travis has never been this foxy!) needing some lovin' (knowing Peck's reputation as a womanizer, Avilla does feel a sense of uncertainty because his overworking nature to find evidence against the smart-aleck, no-good cop leaves little time for a wife wanting affection and attention from her husband) and removing anyone that might point a finger at his direction. Considering the possible notoriety behind the scenes between Gere and Garcia's inability to get along, their time on screen benefits significantly from the intensity, animosity, and hostility shared between the two characters, Peck and Avilla. Gere fires on all cylinders in this performance, full of swagger and aggression, with a character that would easily dupe you into believing he's on your side, while all the while setting up your execution. Seemingly no conscience (except when with his children) or compassion exists in this man, and Peck has built enough bad juju for punishment to visit upon him with violent and swift justice. I like how the film establishes that Avilla's obsessions (like getting a cop associated with Peck, Dorian (Michael Beach), on Homicide) are turning him into Peck. There's a really volatile scene where Avilla confronts his wife in a restaurant about her possible involvement with Peck that registers off-the-charts; Avilla even smacks her upside the jaw, dropping panties, stolen by Peck from her room, at her face! Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne; The Big Bang Theory) has a nifty supporting part as Avilla's lesbian partner, Amy Wallace. Where Internal Affairs feels conventional is in the partner getting hurt and the wife being threatened by the villain. The inevitable showdown doesn't quite match the earlier macho exchanges, eliciting plenty of fireworks, between the opposing cops. Gere dominates his scenes—every last one of them—while Garcia can stare down those associates of Avilla with a moral compass blazing a trail from his eyes that leaves them really uncomfortable and on edge (a great example is the wife of Van, played by Faye Grant, who has a disdain for the IA but cannot look Avilla in the eyes; she had been screwing around with Peck behind Van's back). Annabella Sciorra has limited involvement in the film as Peck's newest wife, eventually helping Avilla take down her sleazy husband (it was either her children or Peck, with few options available to her, as Avilla forces her hand). Baldwin's demise thanks to Gere is hard to watch because it is coming and Van doesn't have a clue he's about to take a shotgun blast to the chest. Not quite dying, Peck assists with a choke hold strangling the remaining life from him. This, along with the discovery of the parents under the giant Hollywood sign, just illustrates fully how evil he really is. He, at the end, uses his children's welfare as an excuse for all of his activities; Gere's whole purpose is to make us despise his character and in that he succeeds.

oms this movie still is so AWESOME.Laurie Metcalf who play Jackie in the hit show from 90s Roseanne,wow she is So good in this too love her acting!i love how the chemistry between two partners Garcia/Metcalf was VERY convincing,strictly platonic. i love his wife in this nancy travis. was very pretty, so cute, her long very wild thick curly hair i remember most about her as her acting was really good in this too. love this filmand i agree the scene at the end"when he say to her if your f---king lieing to me,if i see you with some 1 i will f----king kill you! lol then the part in the restaurant, oms when he is asking her first niceand calm where were you who you go to lunch with and she got snarly says none,of YOUR business roflmfao! oms. that was something she should have not said then,he hit her LOL not at all NICE! however,the scene was LOL he start speaking Spanish totally going off on her in the public at her job lol everyone staring,lol they would not dare! even approach I.A.D.officer Raymond avilla.I love his acting. (andy Garcia)acting so hot. a very passionate papito.y' yo amo this movie,never sick of it, even if it is sad when William Baldwin character Van Stretch killed by Dennis peck rich gere.Richard was MEAN in this just all type of sleaze he was great in it though. a very good movie. Van Stretch(Baldwin)should have known not to trust this guy,Richard gere(Dennis peck)was so bad in this film,very great acting on all parts!the ending is the best but avail the entire movie is ten stars easy...adiós..Most Beautiful BMW Redhead over at Facebook