One Tough Cop

A clunky crime drama "inspired" by the life of renegade NYPD cop Bo Dietl, as played with Neanderthal stoicism by Stephen Baldwin. Together with his heavy-gambling partner Duke Finnerty (Chris Penn), Dietl busts up an ethnic hostage crisis and uses his mob connections to investigate the murder of a nun. (It was the latter brand of controversial policing that led to Bietl's enforced retirement at 35.) Cliché-ridden and generic to a fault, this is a humourless rehash of the buddy cop format served up by Brazilian director Bruno Barreto without any narrative punch or real thrills. Barreto's partner Amy Irving has a thankless role as an FBI agent.