Cop

James Woods, who had really been coming along as an actor of range and presence, suffers a relapse here when he is forced to play an especially sociopathic... well... er... cop. He alienates his family (they leave), he annoys his partners, he harasses his enemies (who makes out the worst?) and just in general is not a very likable guy. I expected this to be a gritty "Police Story" type of picture, but it is a letdown, its principal distinction being that in it a phenomenally sexy woman is killed off in a most distasteful way. Too bad. The far-fetched plot has Woods battling the police bureaucracy (surprise) as he solves a long string of serial murders (with an unlikely connection, to say the least) and tracks down the perp, who is a (you guessed it) psycho, and who, aside from his penchant for gore, proves only a minor challenge for our hero. Even the violence is only average. The best part of the picture is in the very beginning; Woods comes home from work and goes to tell his little girl a bedtime story, but it's all about busts and crack deals and shootouts, and crooks, and his daughter loves it, is entranced by it, knows the lingo as well as her dad. This small segment is well-observed, trenchant, REAL. The rest is just tricked-up Hollywood macho posturing, about as real as Naugahyde.