Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Title Sums It Up Best., February 4, 2002
This film is called "Internal Affairs" based on Andy Garcia's character Raymond Avilar, his IAD affiliation within the LAPD, and his investigation of corrupt cop Dennis Peck (Richard Gere). Then again, is it? I think it's a very spicy double entendre as well, in reference to the steamy sexual undercurrent that spices this Police thriller. .............. The mind games that go on between Gere and Garcia are intense, and thoroughly entertaining. Gere plays street cop Dennis Peck, a ruthless manipulator of his co-workers to better his own self interests, and of women for his voracious carnal needs. Despite being on his 4th marriage with kids all over, and one on the way from wife #4, played by Annabella Sciorra, he takes who he wants to bed, when he wants. Other mens wives are his favorite score of all, and he beds all his conquests concurrently. Garcia's Raymond Avilar, is investigating Peck to see exactly how he is affording all the wives and kids on a cops salary. He and partner Laurie Metcalf, an admitted lesbian he is partners with, uncover Peck's secret passel of lucrative corruption. It becomes their shared ambition to bust Peck. ................ Again, this is an extremely sexy movie, and having leads like Garcia and Gere don't make it too difficult to pull off. Raymond is married to the very beautiful Kathleen (Nancy Travis), and theirs is obviously a very passionate marriage. There are strong elements of jealousy mixed into their relationship, and Peck plays upon that in a great scene where he faces off with Raymond outside the Division headquarters. Gere's deliciously vicious Peck starts talking about "Wives", namely Raymonds. Peck had previously told Raymond that this was a taboo subject when Raymond questioned him about his partner Van Stretch's (William Baldwin) wife, who Peck of course, is sleeping with. However, he has fun getting Raymond riled up as he reveals what he knows about Kathleen, and surmising that she is bored and may be looking for "strange", a Peck term for infidelity. Peck explicitly tells Raymond, HE will be mentoring Kathleen sexually, very soon. This haunts Raymond, and there are interesting camera vignettes where Raymond flashes to thoughts of Peck and his wife together when he's been drinking as Peck has driven him to do. Director Mike Figgis is especially adept in creating a nightmarish experience for Raymond that we can feel while viewing it. ................. I personally love this film, and think it has enough of everything to really keep you thoroughly engrossed throughout. The most outstanding thing about it is the chemistry between all the leads. These characters feel very real, and work beautifully together. There is a terrific noir mood with the innate evilness that Gere brings to the screen so convincingly. This is enhanced by Garcia and Travis' roles which are smolderingly full of a heated sexual ambience. Although it's a sexy police thriller like Paul Verhoeven's "Basic Instinct", "Internal Affairs" has a more simmering quality, and it's less obvious in it's agenda. ................. This movie is one to watch with the one you love, be sure to keep a fire extinguisher nearby for the subsequent sizzle. It's truly one of the best crime dramas ever lensed, because it goes beyond that to the personal and "Internal Affairs" between the characters. That's why I think the title refers to more than just the most feared division of the police department.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE TEMPTATION OF SAINT RAMON, April 23, 1999
INTERNAL AFFAIRS is the story of a fight : the fight of a young member of the cops of the cops' team against a rotten member of the LAPD. Andy "RAMON" Garcia is hispanic, cold, married to a beautiful member of the artistic world of L.A. and dedicated to his job. Richard "DENNIS" Gere, on the contrary, is a cop with no morals at all, living with his two ex-wives and six children in the same house and enjoying the fortune he has illegally made during his spare time.You soon understand that there is a second fight going on, the one Ramon has to carry on against himself. And the description of Ramon's stress is curiously the most interesting aspect of INTERNAL AFFAIRS. Dennis will become the broken mirror into which Ramon looks at himself. The image that Richard "Dennis" Gere reflects in the direction of Andy Garcia is vicious ; it's the image of an anglo-american living an hispanic way of life with his entire family around him. Hard to swallow for a Ramon without any single child ! So Ramon will go through a terrible night during which all the temptations will pass before his eyes ; jealousy, sex, intemperance and so on. The high point of this night is reached when he slaps his wife screaming in his mother tongue, in spanish. At this moment, one understands that INTERNAL AFFAIRS is also the story of a man who has to kill a part of himself in order to survive in the world he has chosen to live in. Don't be afraid ! Mike Figgis' INTERNAL AFFAIRS is in the first place a wonderful cop movie with Richard Gere in the best role of his career and lot of action too. This movie is clearly one of the best of the genre of the 90's. A DVD for your library. NB : Attention ! the jacket announces english subtitles as bonus feature. It's wrong. No subtitles at all !
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One Bad Cop, July 17, 2002
Why is it that some of our best actors give their best performances when they are playing bad guys? Maybe it's the change of pace; one probably gets tired of being the hero in film after film; but they clearly seem to revel in the opportunity of playing a straight-up jerk once in a while. In "Internal Affairs", we have Richard Gere coming down off his movie idol pedestal and giving a devastating performance as Dennis Peck, a cop who gives corruption a whole new definition. This guy makes Satan look like a boy scout. He carries on a brazen affair with his partner's wife; arranges to have his partner whacked when the police department's internal affairs bureau begins investigating his partner's extracurricular activities a little too closely and his partner is about to implicate him in the mess; agrees to execute a wealthy businessman's elderly parents who are taking too long to die so that he can come into his inheritance (meanwhile seducing the businessman's wife as part of his fee for service); and tries to seduce the wife of Raymond Avila, the internal affairs cop played by Andy Garcia, when Avila starts to suspect that Peck isn't the poster-boy cop his precinct command has made him out to be. The movie tries to show us what Peck thinks is his softer side; he's a devoted father to his offspring, but we can see that to Peck his children are nothing but trophies; he's still in his thirties but he already has 8 by three former wives and his fourth wife is expecting his ninth. Peck's children are extensions of himself; his wives are baby-making machines, and his partners and co-workers are pawns to be used for his own nefarious purposes. When Avila realizes that Peck has tried to destroy him as a cop and as a man by attempting to seduce his wife, the battle lines are drawn; Avila, of course, will be Peck's nemesis, but it's fascinating to watch each of them try to bring the other down. There are excellent performances by the supporting cast, particularly Nancy Travis as Avila's wife; Laurie Metcalf as Amy Wallace, Avila's partner who proves she's a tough a cop as any man, and William Baldwin as Van Stretch, Peck's hapless and ultimately gutless partner, brave enough to beat up on his wife but not strong enough to stand up to Peck and the venality he represents. Peck is one of the more intriguing anti-heroes on film; just when we think he's hit rock bottom, he takes a shovel and starts to dig himself in even deeper; he sees Avila's decency as a weakness he can manipulate just as he has played and destroyed everyone who crosses him. Some people, especially those who don't like to see law enforcement portrayed in a negative light, are going to be offended by this movie, but the film doesn't tar all policemen with the same brush; it's a fascinating and disturbing voyage into the mind of one very bad cop.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Alright for action,,,But wasn't what I thought it was!!!!
I wanted the one with Elijah Wood and it was in the actor's section,,,He is not in this one,,,,A little disappointing but I'll live through it,,,,The action is good though....!!!!
Published 10 months ago by K. Marion
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Video On Demand ~ Richard Gere
Video On Demand ~ Richard Pearce
Video On Demand ~ Andy Garcia
Video On Demand ~ Richard Gere
Video On Demand ~ Barbet?Shroeder
Video On Demand ~ Richard Gere
