Internal Affairs
Release date: 1990-01-12
Votes: 407
Genres: Crime, Drama
Keen young Raymold Avila joins the Internal Affairs Department of the Los Angeles police. He and partner Amy Wallace are soon looking closely at the activities of cop Dennis Peck whose financial holdings start to suggest something shady. Indeed Peck is involved in any number of dubious or downright criminal activities. He is also devious, a womaniser, and a clever manipulator, and he starts to turn his attention on Avila.
Reviews
John Chard
Like a big baby with buttons all over. I push the buttons. Internal Affairs is directed by Mike Figgis and written by Henry Bean. It stars Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Nancy Travis, William Baldwin and Laurie Metcalf. Music is jointly produced by Figgis, Brian Banks and Anthony Marinelli and cinematography is by John A. Alonzo. Stylish neo-noir that has Gere as Dennis Peck, a crooked cop under investigation by IAD operatives Garcia and Metcalf. Peck is a master manipulator, a devious bastard who has his fingers in so many mud pies he could start his own bakery. Gere is on fire with the role, imbuing Peck with a menacing nastiness that’s a constant throughout the entire play. Once Figgis and Bean have laid the character foundations, the plot turns into a psychological battle of wills and skills between Peck and Raymond Avila (Garcia), with Peck always one step ahead because he knows where Avila’s weakness is. Figgis slow burns the tension with great aplomb, then unleashes the beasts for the thriller aspects of Bean’s screenplay. The look and feel of the piece is that of doom, deftly positing Peck’s vileness within a city awash with crooks, hookers and hitmen for hire. 8/10
CinemaSerf
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.
Movie Recommendation
Almost an Angel1990-12-21Terry Dean is an electronics wizard and thief. After he is released from jail, he is hit by a car while saving a little girl's life. While in the hospital, he dreams that God visits him and tells him he's an Angel, and must start doing good things to make up for his past life. Not believing it at first, he soon becomes convinced he must be an Angel. Not having any Angel powers yet, he must use his own experiences and talents to make good things happen.More...
Micke & Veronica2014-12-25After hiring Micke, a carpenter from Stockholm, to help renovate her kitchen, upper class Veronica develops immediate feelings for him. The two are keen to start a relationship, but their two children are less enthusiastic. Veronica decides a holiday to Bohuslan where her parents live is just what the couple needs.More...
Ali Blue Eyes2012-11-15Ostia, outskirts of Rome: the beach in winter. Two sixteen-year-old boys steal a scooter at 8 in the morning, then rob a store, all in time for getting to school at 9. Nader is Egyptian, but was born in Rome. Stefano is Italian and his best friend Brigitte, Nader’s girlfriend, is also Italian, but for this very reason Nader’s parents are against the match, and Nader runs away from home. The film describes a week in the life of a teenager who tries to subvert the values of his own family. Torn between his Arab and Italian identity, audacious and in love, like the hero of a contemporary fairy tale, Nader will have to put up with the cold, the loneliness, life on the street, hunger and fear, the flight from his enemies and the loss of his friends, before he can really understand who he is.More...
For the Beautiful Ladies!1989-06-01A group of young successful women is getting robbed in the house of one of them.More...
One Good Cop1991-05-03When his partner is killed in the line of duty, Artie Lewis becomes the legal guardian of his three orphaned girls. But during his investigation of the case, Lewis finds his life – and that of his newfound family – on the line. That's when the guilty crime-lord comes face to face with one man's rage, one man's fury, one man's justice.More...
Housekeeping1987-11-25In the Pacific Northwest during the 1950s, two young sisters whose mother has abandoned them wind up living with their Aunt Sylvie, whose views of the world and its conventions don't quite live up to most people's expectations.More...
Impulse1990-04-06A Los Angeles vice cop, caught between her undercover role as a sex worker and her personal relationships, is thrown into a web of murder and deceit.More...
Glaze of Cathexis1990-03-05This hand-painted work is easily the most minutely detailed ever given to me to do, for it traces (as best I'm able) the hypnagogic after-effect of psychological cathexis as designed by Freud in his first (and unfinished) book on the subject - "Toward a Scientific Psychology." (SB)More...
The Young Poisoner's Handbook1995-01-20Graham Young is a teenage misfit living in suburban London in the 1960s. He hates his stepmother but loves chemistry, and the two impulses unite in a wicked plot to slowly poison her. After she dies, he's found guilty and sent to a psychiatric hospital, where an idealistic doctor thinks he can be cured.More...
Ice Pepper2017-09-01Two penguins friends wander on the sea ice. They discover something that may decide the fate of Antarctica.More...
The Fourth War1990-03-08Cold War adversaries Col. Jack Knowles and his Russian counterpart, Col. Valachev, are stationed on opposite sides of the German-Czech border. Both men are responsible for a group of troops in their remote settings, and both have been shaped by their combat experiences and a shared aversion to their superiors' ways of doing things. After a defector is killed, things escalate into a full-fledged battle with serious geopolitical ramifications.More...
The King of Colonnades1991-05-01In May 1945, a broken violinist lies drunk by a creek, haunted by memories of his life before and during WWII. Once the celebrated first violin in spa orchestras, he married Jewish nurse Róza and dreamed of fatherhood, only to face brutal anti-Jewish persecution. Relegated to second violin, he spirals into alcoholism and betrayal, while Róza and their daughter are deported. Cast out by colleagues and lovers, he descends into madness, murdering a vagrant with his violin case. In a final psychotic haze, he tends a roadside Christ statue before collapsing, his shattered life a testament to love, loss, and atrocity.More...
The Small Back Room1949-02-21At the height of World War II, the Germans begin dropping a new type of booby-trapped bomb on England. Highly skilled but haunted bomb disposal officer Sammy Rice must overcome his personal demons to defeat this new threat.More...
The Hot Spot1990-10-12Upon arriving to a small town, a drifter quickly gets into trouble with the local authorities — and the local women — after he robs a bank.More...
Cadillac Man1990-05-18Joe's a car salesman with a problem—he has two days to sell 12 cars or he loses his job. This would be a difficult task at the best of times but Joe has to contend with his girlfriends (he's two-timing), a missing teenage daughter and an ex-wife.More...
Zero Effect1998-01-30Daryl Zero is a private investigator and—along with his assistant, Steve Arlo—he solves impossible crimes and puzzles. Although Daryl's a master investigator, he doesn't know what to do with himself when he's not working; he has no social skills, writes bad music and drives Steve crazy.More...
Hero1992-10-02Bernie Laplante is having a rough time. He's divorced, his ex-wife hates him and has custody of their son, the cops are setting a trap for him, then to top it all, he loses a shoe whilst rescuing passengers of a crashed jet. Being a thief who is down on his luck, Bernie takes advantage of the crash, but then someone else claims credit for the rescue.More...
Down and Out in Beverly Hills1986-01-31Beverly Hills couple Barbara and Dave Whiteman find their lives altered by the arrival of a vagrant who tries to drown himself in their swimming pool.More...
Affliction1997-12-30A small town policeman must investigate a suspicious hunting accident. The investigation and other events result in him slowly disintegrating mentally.More...
Crimes of Passion1984-10-19Fashion designer Joanna Crane leads a double life. By night she is China Blue, a prostitute who's attracted the attention of a sexually frustrated private detective, and a psychopathic priest in possession of a murderous sex toy.More...
Similar Movies
Paris, Texas
1984-07-16A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.Short Cuts
1993-10-01Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.Face/Off
1997-06-27In order to foil a terrorist plot, an FBI agent undergoes facial transplant surgery and assumes the identity of a criminal mastermind. The plan turns sour when the criminal wakes up prematurely and seeks revenge.Transamerica
2005-02-14A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.2 Fast 2 Furious
2003-06-05It's a major double-cross when former police officer Brian O'Conner teams up with his ex-con buddy Roman Pearce to transport a shipment of "dirty" money for shady Miami-based import-export dealer Carter Verone. But the guys are actually working with undercover agent Monica Fuentes to bring Verone down.Sunset Boulevard
1950-08-10A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.The Bodyguard
1992-11-25A former Secret Service agent grudgingly takes an assignment to protect a pop idol who's threatened by a crazed fan. At first, the safety-obsessed bodyguard and the self-indulgent diva totally clash. But before long, all that tension sparks fireworks of another sort, and the love-averse tough guy is torn between duty and romance.The Usual Suspects
1995-07-19Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.Lost Highway
1997-01-15A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.The Big Sleep
1946-08-23Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.Lethal Weapon 3
1992-05-15Riggs and Murtaugh pursue a former officer who uses his knowledge of police procedure and policies to steal and sell confiscated guns and ammunition to local street gangs.Lethal Weapon 4
1998-07-10With personal crises and age weighing in on them, Riggs and Murtaugh must contend with deadly Chinese triads trying to free their former leaders from prison and onto American soil.Heat
1995-12-15Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and respects the ability and the dedication of the other even though they are aware their cat-and-mouse game may end in violence.Point Break
2015-12-03A young undercover FBI agent infiltrates a gang of thieves who share a common interest in extreme sports. A remake of the 1991 film, "Point Break".Mulholland Drive
2001-06-06Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.The French Connection...
1971-10-09Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.Breathless
1983-05-13Jesse, a small-time criminal, high-tails it to Los Angeles to rendezvous with a French exchange student. Stealing a car and accidentally killing a highway patrolman, he becomes the most wanted fugitive in L.A.Point Break
1991-07-12In Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers who call themselves The Ex-Presidents commit their crimes while wearing masks of Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Believing that the members of the gang could be surfers, the F.B.I. sends young agent Johnny Utah to the beach undercover to mix with the surfers and gather information.Lonely Hearts
2006-04-30In the late 1940s, a murderous couple known as the 'The Lonely Hearts Killers' kills close to a dozen people. Two detectives try to nab the duo who find their targets via the personals in the paper.Street Kings
2008-04-10Tom Ludlow is a disillusioned L.A. Police Officer, rarely playing by the rules and haunted by the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him.