A lurid, lightweight throw-together of cheap psycho-thrills which tries to dress itself up as something more substantial.
Internal Affairs (1990)
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Synopsis: The plot of INTERNAL AFFAIRS is simple and familiar--good guy Raymond Avila (Andy Garcia) works for the internal affairs division of the LAPD and has to take down Dennis Peck (Richard Gere), a corrupt officer. The twist is that the film is really about social change in America. Gere plays Peck... The plot of INTERNAL AFFAIRS is simple and familiar--good guy Raymond Avila (Andy Garcia) works for the internal affairs division of the LAPD and has to take down Dennis Peck (Richard Gere), a corrupt officer. The twist is that the film is really about social change in America. Gere plays Peck as an iconoclastic force of nature; he charms everyone he meets, runs the force by trading favors and protecting his own, and has eight kids with four wives. He sees himself as a throwback to an older notion of manhood and professional effectiveness. Avila, on the other hand, is a hero but also--as Peck calls him--a yuppie, seeking promotion in the internal affairs division and involved in a childless marriage with a successful museum curator (Nancy Travis). As Peck pushes Avila's buttons, the situation is further complicated by Avila's Latin temper--a kind of suppressed, true ethnic self that increasingly reveals itself as the two men's struggle reaches a primal level. British director Mike Figgis is an outsider looking in, and his ideas about American society are to some extent generalizations, but nevertheless they have the ring of truth in this intense cop fable. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Nancy Travis, Laurie Metcalf, Joseph Mazzello
DVD Info
Release:
Sep 3, 1999
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Widescreen
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Dolby Surround - English
- Dolby Surround - French
Interactive Features:
- Interactive Menus
- Scene Selection
Reviews
The conflict between Gere and Garcia is what carries the movie; deep beneath the macho brutality there's an almost homoerotic tint to their relationship. It makes for compelling stuff.
Figgis never lets the pace slow long enough to expose the story's thinness despite, in retrospect, a moderate amount of action.
Yet another goofy credit in Gere's already overloaded resume of embarrassment -- although some may consider this one of those movies that's so silly it's good.
Internal Affairs delivers what it promises, and perhaps a little more. There's less action but more menace, and the pulse quickens as the plot drives relentlessly toward a conclusion that, in retrospect, can be seen as inevitable.
Internal Affairs is, for the dim movie season that is traditionally January, an unusually bright light.
Internal Affairs is all stylish visuals and no substance whatsoever. That may be an attempt to hide the silliness of Henry Bean's first-time screenplay, but it doesn't work.
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