Internal Affairs

This provides the audience with quite a different role from the otherwise good looking (romantic) hero type characters usually associated with Richard Gere. In this film, he portrays "Dennis Peck", an outwardly upstanding police officer who is about as dodgy as they come underneath. When Andy Garcia is brought in to investigate goings on at his precinct, he quickly concludes that Gere's partner - the aptly named "Van Stretch" (William Baldwin) is a bit of a no good wife beater, and soon he and Gere are at loggerheads. The screenplay doesn't pull it's punches - this is an out and out depiction of domestic violence, thuggery and police corruption; and not just of one rogue officer, but of an internecine network that stretches far and wide. Gere is just OK - to be honest. He never was my favourite actor and playing the bad guy by the odd vaguely menacing glance whilst lobbing in the odd f-word didn't go anywhere near enough to remove that gentle goody-goody image. The only hair-raising thing Andy Garcia seemed likely to have ever done would have involved a heck of a lot of gel, and the whole thing has a certain professionalism about the production that neutralised, effectively, anything gritty or sordid about their behaviour. I watched it because it is freezing cold, and it was on the telly - but I'm not sure that age has helped it much, and I think maybe I won't bother again.