Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

GazerRise Fantastic!

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

jimbo-53-186511 Raymond Avila (Andy Garcia) works for the Internal Affairs Department with his partner Amy Wallace (Laurie Metcalf). Dennis Peck (Richard Gere) is a police officer who peaks Avila and Wallace's interest when they discover that the lifestyle & money that he has acquired does not seem consistent with those of a regular police officer. Avila and Wallace begin investigating Peck, but Peck is more dangerous than they both envisaged and both Avila and Wallace soon find themselves on a dangerous collision course with Peck.I'm really not sure what director Mike Figgis was doing here, but for the most part Internal Affairs was neither thrilling nor particularly dramatic. I understand that certain films will have a slow-burn approach (which I presume is the approach used by Figgis), but nothing particularly interesting happens. Figgis seems to be content with characters chatting to each other including a couple of rather flat exchanges between Gere and Garcia but that's about all he can seem to muster. Avila and Wallace are supposed to be investigating Peck but it never really feels like much of an investigation to me and for that reason the story unfolds without much tension or intensity. The main problem with this film is that there is no excitement, no spark, and no memorable scenes or dialogue and as a result of all of these things I found the story boring and uninteresting.Oddly though this sort of changed at about the 80 minute mark - the film suddenly kicks into life and it almost felt like Figgis' had suddenly woke up and thought 'S**t I'm supposed to be making a crime thriller here'. There was some intensity in the last 30 minutes which at least made the race to the finish line that little bit more bearable.The cast were another problem here with both Garcia and Gere being in sleep mode here - although strangely enough they both seemed to wake up at about the 80 minute mark as well. Gere is OK throughout the film, but Garcia has never been an actor that I've been able to take to. He only seems to be able to do either quiet and restrained OR all out yelling and overacting - there is a middle ground in between that Garcia never seems to be able to find. The ending is predictable and the story throws up no real surprises along the way.There's nothing really wrong with the script, but this film really needed a director at the helm who understands the genre. Figgis is out of his depth here and pretty much wastes all of the potential on offer by having nearly all of the cast standing round doing nothing. With a more competent director this probably would have been watchable, but as it is it's a bit of a yawner.

SnoopyStyle Veteran beat cop Dennis Peck (Richard Gere) plants a weapon after rookie Dorian Fletcher shoots an unarmed man. Peck's partner Van Stretch (William Baldwin) is unstable with family troubles and drug abuse. Peck is cheating with Van's wife Penny. Raymond Avilla (Andy Garcia) is new to Internal Affairs at the LAPD. With his training officer Amy Wallace (Laurie Metcalf), they start investigating Peck and Van Stretch. Raymond's wife Kathy (Nancy Travis) runs a modern art gallery. Their relationship is under pressure.Richard Gere plays a great villain. It's good that he's not a cartoon character. Like all great villains, he thinks he's the good guy. Andy Garcia has his intensity. I don't really like the turn in his relationship with his wife. His irrational jealousy should be set up better. It's not enough for Peck to show up with her panties. He could be a jealous husband right from the start. Nevertheless, he's a good foil to Gere.

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.