Badcops

Good Movies About Bad Cops

last update 18 September 2006

Infernal Affairs A Hong Kong Cop movie about a young detective who has been undercover since his first day on the force. Implanted in a Triad gang his is well trusted by his boss Sam and his identity is know to only 1 person on the force. Meanwhile the police force also has a mole that reports to Sam in an equally timely fashion. Both moles are asked to discover their alternate selves and a great cat and mouse film ensues. You know somebody is gonna die, but which one? The DVD has alternate ending, but this may turn up in theaters before the DVD is released in North America. There are a few sequels right behind it. 97 minutes Cantonese w/subtitles
The Big Empty First time Director Jack Perez puts a new twist on the hard boiled detective story. Lloyd Meadows is not quite sure why he is a detective, but he waits patiently for his next divorce job. A rather vulnerable Jane Danforth hires him to trail her social worker husband, Peter. Peter appears to be an angel, so Lloyd starts messing with his mind. Before long the lonely detective has pried Jane away and made Peter the lonely party. This is another First Rites directorial debut film. Not exactly a bad cop movie but, hey a bad detective is close. 96 minute Unrated 2000
Romeo is Bleeding For every bad movie he has made, Gary Oldman is in three that are brilliant. This is one of the latter. He plays Jack, an avaricious New York detective who sells a witness to the mob for 65 grand. The boys hire Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin) do the hit, but she gets caught. Jack gets paid to kill her before she can talk, but this proves to be a little more difficult than planned. Annabella Sciorra is Jack's accomplice/wife and Juliette Lewis is great as his mistress. Busy guy ! Directed by Peter Medak Rated R 110 minutes 1994
2 Days in The Valley Plenty of twists and some truly bizarre characters make this a worthwhile waste of your time. I'm fairly certain there's a bad cop in the mix. Directed by John Herzfeld, the cast includes James Spader, Teri Hatcher, Danny Aielo, Louise Fletcher but not Steve Buscemi. 1996 Rated R 108 Minutes

The Bad Lieutenant Harvey Keitel redefines degenerate in this one.See review in Substance Abuse and be sure and find the NC 17 version.1992 98 minutes

Live Flesh This is not truly an odd film but you may find a lone copy languishing in you local video emporium. If you want to brush up on Spanish vulgarity, it's a wellspring of colorful vocabulary. The main character gets into an argument with a rather colorful woman he'd met the night before. They get into a struggle, the police arrive and the gun goes off. He does time, and when released he tracks her down only to find she has married the wounded policeman. There are way too many coincidences for your average cynical viewer. 1997 Rated R 101 minutes Spanish w/subtitles
Things to Do In Denver When You are Dead This movie has been overlooked and some say with good reason. It probably has a bad cop in it somewhere, but I am not going to rewatch it to verify the point. Great title and an excellent ending.Yes of course Steve Buscemi is in it and so is Christopher walkin and Christopher Loyd. 1995 Rated R
Blood Simple Joel and Ethan Cohens' first full length film is due to be re-released this summer. This is a great thriller which has strains of Fargo in it's twisty plot. A younger Francis McDormand runs off from her nasty barkeeper husband played by Danny Hadaya. A plot for revenge backfires more than once and will leave you guessing the outcome. Emmett Walsh plays a crooked detective, which is why it's listed on this page. Worth a re-viewing if you saw it 17 years ago when it first came out. 96 minutes Rated R 1983

This page needs your help. There must be a hundred movies in this category (other than Serpico) so send in you ideas.

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