Clevercell Very disappointing...

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

chaos-rampant 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

LeonLouisRicci This Isn't So Much About the Internal Affairs Division, It's More About the Internal Sexual Affairs of the Cops Involved in This Steamy, Sultry, Sleazy Thriller.Richard Gere and Andy Garcia are Well Cast as the Two Bulls, Both with Testosterone Issues and the "Good Cop-Bad Cop" Characters are Fleshed Out in a Slightly Over the Top Display of the Foul Mouthed and Utterly Amoral Gere and the Affection, but Hot Latin Love of Garcia that He Displays to His Faithful Wife.The Film Takes a Hard Look at Gere's Lech and His Unbridled Manipulation of Women and His Seductive Powers with a Nineties Disregard for Subtlety. Garcia, On the Other Hand is Being Push-Buttoned by Gere's Form of Evil and the Film Makes the Most of the Two Attractive Leads.Overall, it's a Neo-Noir Worth Checking Out for Gere's Against Type Take on His Type of Leading Man Appeal. Garcia, Shows His Sensitive Side Well, but is Allowed Melodramatic Emoting too Often. However, the Director Manages to Make it Work Most of the Time.The Only Thing More on Display than the Run Rampant Sexual Activity is the Amount of Female Hair that Dominates the Frame Routinely. But that Was the Reality and Not a Stylization of the Makeup Department.

Scarecrow-88 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.

tieman64 Bad cops abound in "Internal Affairs", a pulpy thriller by Mike Figgis. The film stars Andy Garcia as an Internal Affairs agent who locks horns with Richard Gere's Dennis Peck. Peck's a womanizer and crooked cop with much blood on his hands. Garcia tries to take him down."Internal Affairs" is at its best during its early, low key moments. Unfortunately the film quickly goes into over-the-top territory, with ridiculous gun fights and much melodrama. Sidney Lumet's the king of this genre, with films like "Q and A", "Serpico" and "Prince of the City". Figgis can't compete.6/10 – Worth one viewing. See Garcia instead in "Jennifer 8".