Verdict
Summary
The film is a pretty basic, by-the-numbers thriller, but it’s completely serviceable with all the accouterments you’d expect for a film such as this – good performances, slimy bad guys, a bit of a mystery, a crisis of conscience, a sexy babe who entices the hero, corrupt officials, and the inevitable loss of the hero’s partner. It was never meant to reinvent the cop genre, but it certainly fits nicely within it.
Plot:
A tough cop with a friend in the mob proves to be a tricky business.
Review:
Bo Dietl (Stephen Baldwin in his prime) is a tough New York detective working a rough beat with his partner Duke (Chris Penn) who is in deep with mounting gambling debts and substance abuse problems, not to mention piles of unpaid parking tickets. Bo gets the attention of internal affairs and the feds when they realize his best friend is a “made man” named Richie (Mike McGlone) with direct connections to one of the FBI’s most wanted, a high ranking Mafioso. Bo is threatened with expulsion from the force if he doesn’t cooperate with the feds, which would entail him betraying his best friend, and when he refuses, he finds himself at a crossroads in his career. It doesn’t help that when he and Duke break a high-profiled case of the rape and torture of a nun, their hard work is completely ignored and credit is given to another detective, and when Duke’s behavior becomes more erratic and out of control, Bo is left to fend for himself and make the hard choices that might land him in prison, but he’s not just an honest cop … he’s one tough cop too!
Inspired by the life and exploits of a real cop named Bo Dietl (this was based on his book), One Tough Cop was mostly ignored when it was barely theatrically released (which I vividly remember) more than a year after it was completed. The film is a pretty basic, by-the-numbers thriller, but it’s completely serviceable with all the accouterments you’d expect for a film such as this – good performances, slimy bad guys, a bit of a mystery, a crisis of conscience, a sexy babe who entices the hero, corrupt officials, and the inevitable loss of the hero’s partner. It was never meant to reinvent the cop genre, but it certainly fits nicely within it. Director Bruno Barreto did a solid job with this sometimes lurid material, turning Dietl’s story into a genre piece that most viewers who appreciate this sort of thing will enjoy.
MVD Marquee Collection has just released a Blu-ray (and a DVD) for One Tough Cop, and it looks and sounds solid in high definition. The disc comes with a trailer and TV spots.
