Sorry, this movie sucks

Let's be realistic.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

I've always liked Michael Keaton, and for some reason, he's not around as much as he once was, which is a shame."One Good Cop" from 1991 is the story of a cop, Artie Lewis (Keaton) who loses his partner Stevie of eight years (Anthony LaPaglia) during a shootout. He's devastated. Then he learns that in Stevie's will, he made Artie and his wife Rita (Rene Russo) the guardians of his three daughters. They move into Artie's small apartment. As guardian, he is responsible for the children's' well-being, but they can go into foster care and ultimately be adopted. Since Artie and Rita don't have a lot of money, this seems a good solution. But Rita was unable to have children, and now she wants to keep the girls. Artie makes a decision that could have disastrous results.This movie was okay, with some good performances by the principals, as well as Kevin Conway, Rachel Ticotin, Benjamin Bratt, and Tony Plana.This easily could have been made for television were it not for Keaton and Russo being attached to it. It's a decent rental.

One thing here is that you'll either get swept up in this delightfully moving family / brutally searing cop drama or think it's manipulative tugging away with its unconvincingly trite plot developments. I would go with the former, but I can see why some might not be entirely taken away by it… especially with its sugar-coated ending.After the tragic death of his detective partner in their quest to crack down on a new wave drug --- Ice. Artie Lewis and his wife end up looking after the decease's three daughters with the possible intention of adopting them. However they're stretching for money and to keep them they have to find a house than living in their small apartment. Hence the dangerous path Artie decides to take to gain the extra doe to keep everyone together.The simple minded mixture of two genres is for most part well balanced and organised in not so a black or white fashion, as it bestows a seamy underbelly with the violence packing a punch (plenty of blood and bruises) and the emotional attachment and complexity weight of a couple trying to cope with the responsibility of looking after three children. Hard at first, but it brings them joy. Nevertheless what really lifted this from the standard material were the solid performances. Michael Keaton's likable easy going persona along with a touching Reno Russo was holding it together. Tony Plana held a vicious intensity to his drug-dealer gangster and Kevin Conway was commanding as Lewis' Ltd. Anthony LaPaglia as his former cop partner is affably good and Benjamin Bratt also shows up as one of his fellow officers. Writer / director Heywood Gould (who co-penned the much underrated revenge feature "Rolling Thunder") drills away in what you could say is sturdily workmanlike, building upon the pressures at home and work. Entertaining, if questionable.

This could have been a good plot had the screenplay wanted to delve deeply into the terrain of conflicted morals; instead of taking it for granted that we accept that the events that happen are the result of a man following his only logical option. It's utterly manipulative and trite film-making, with everybody concerned thinking that they can just throw us some closeups of big doe eyes, and we'll suddenly forget that this is NOT action taken by those wanting to claim superior motivation.If you're driven to pursue illegality, then chances are you're desperate, but do you have to be boneheaded about it, too? Why not try to get some of your colleagues onside in the scheme? In for a penny in for a pound, after all... That would of course eliminate your 'lone man in search of justice' angle, but at least it would make more sense, instead of feeling like a dupe, which unfortunately seems to be the practice of the whole tale."One Good Cop" is suffocatingly mawkish. Were it not for the violence and improperly used talent involved, it could easily pass for a dreary teledrama instead of a fully-fledged motion picture. It's trying to convince us that it has a singular approach; but the reality is that its type is nothing but bland and needlessly ubiquitous, which is a far more depressing snapshot of how life and the movie business works than any of the faux emotions tossed our way here.

Michael Keaton and wife Rene Russo want to adopt Anthony LaPaglia's three young daughters after he is killed on duty with partner Keaton by his side in this dull, slow-moving and uninteresting little film. The typical problems arise as the couple need money to move to a larger place before they can legally claim guardianship of the girls. Could this mean that Keaton will get involved in crooked dealings to get the cash they so desperately need? Predictable and amazingly cheap-looking film that just never does generate any drama or real intrigue. 2 stars out of 5.