GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

rodrig58 Ted Kotcheff, who gave us First Blood (1982) and Uncommon Valor (1983), is offering now a cheap cop movie. Charles Bronson, 73 years old, still looks and moves very well (on his face furrowed by old wrinkles, we can see the sadness of losing his wife in real life, the actress Jill Ireland, with only five years before - the film is made in 1995). The story is not great but, all the actors strive how to do it more credible: Angela Featherstone, Sebastian Spence, Simon MacCorkindale(Jesus of Nazareth and The Riddle of the Sands), John Vernon("professional villain" in so many films, Fear Is the Key, Charley Varrick, Brannigan, Chained Heat, to name just a few), Lesley-Anne Down(the beauty from Hanover Street), Daniel Baldwin, Barbara Williams, Kate Trotter. I'm a big fan of Charles Bronson but, this Family of Cops, is far below his youth level. Yet, Bronson's acting is honest and credible.

bkoganbing Charles Bronson's last film role was as police inspector Paul Fein of the Milwaukee,PD which he did for Family Of Cops for this and two sequels. His two sons, Daniel Baldwin and Sebastian Spence went on the job and daughter Barbara Williams became a public defender. But she's not the real rebel in the Fein family. The youngest is daughter Angela Featherstone who is out in California looking to 'find herself'. That meaning that she's taken up with any and all. She's back for a family occasion where she takes up with hotel magnate Simon MacCorkindale.So when she wakes up from an alcoholic stupor and finds MacCorkindale shot to death she has the presence of mind to call dad. So Bronson and the rest of the family put their careers on the line to save Featherstone when at first they're not sure she's even innocent.Both Bronson and MacCorkindale have made a lot of enemies. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that someone would shoot Simon just to embarrass the Fein family with their black sheep. MacCorkindale also has a jealous wife in Lesley-Anne Down and an ex-wife Paula Trotter who have motives.During the course of this Daniel Baldwin nearly dies, but the criminal he's pursuing and the snitch who tips off Bronson have the key to the whole case.Watching this I was of two minds. Just a small investigation would have shown this a professional hit and the Feins need not have put their careers at risk. But also in my experience the easiest answer is the one police often go with. At age 73 when he tackled this role Bronson is clearly slowing down. He lets a lot of the action go to younger cast members. He's clearly though not one to be trifled with. In fact the real main character is Featherstone whose rehabilitation as well as acquittal becomes a Fein family project.Two more films about the Feins of Milwaukee were done before Charles Bronson called it a career. A good if not great role to go out on.

Leofwine_draca As Charles Bronson reached his 70s, so his ability to perform as an action star waned. Producers got around this by teaming him up with extra characters, as in the 1993 TV movie DONATO AND DAUGHTER in which he played the titular role alongside his crime-fighting offspring. DEATH WISH V saw Bronson sharing screen time with a number of supporting actors who occupied great swathes of the running time. His career eventually evaporated with a whimper rather than a bang in a trilogy of cheap-looking TV movies made under the FAMILY OF COPS banner. This is the first of that trilogy, and the 74-year-old star is well past his prime.FAMILY OF COPS commits that most grievous of cinematic crimes: it's boring. The viewer's interest never lifts once during the scant running time, and the blame can largely be laid on the dull plot, which mixes uninteresting family dynamics, police procedural thrills and a murder mystery in such a way that never reaps the benefits of any of those genres. Bronson plays the patriarch of a too-large family, where the guys are all cops and the women either wives, mothers or victims (there's never any characterisation beyond those staples).Despite the presence of a number of familiar faces in the cast (Simon MacCorkindale as a murder victim, Daniel Baldwin as Bronson's unlikely son, DEATH WISH V's Lesley-Anne Down as a murder suspect and John Vernon as a gangster), the acting is never more than routine and the drama never forthcoming. There are a couple of half-hearted scenes of Bronson beating down crims, but this is a far cry from even his days as Cannon's number one action hero. Its TV-movie look and feel puts it more in line with those cheesy romance movies involving rich playboys which have dated the '90s so badly. Director Ted Kotcheff, who once made FIRST BLOOD, should know better.

callanvass This is a great T.V cop drama, I was really surprised by how emotional and intense it was, with top notch performances all around!. All the characters are great!, and the story is very good as well, plus Charles Bronson is simply amazing in this!. Charles definitely gives one of his best Acting performances in his career here, and the film has a lot of cool twists and turns as well!, plus the ending is somewhat shocking and surprising. Angela Featherstone is fantastic as Jackie(The Daughter), and Dainel Baldwin really surprised me by giving a very good performance here!, plus there is some great action in this as well!. I was really impressed on how all of the Fein's family bonded so well and its unpredictable throughout, plus the dialog is quite engaging. The only reason I decided to tape this is because it had Charles Bronson, and while I did expect to enjoy it, it was actually much more then that it's actually a great film in most aspects, as it does not feel like a T.V Movie a lot of the time!. This is a great T.V cop drama, I was really surprised by how emotional and intense it was, with top notch performances all around, I highly recommend this one!. The Direction is very good!. Ted Kotcheff does a very good! job here with solid camera work, good angles and keeping the film at a very fast pace!. The Acting is wonderful. Charles Bronson is amazing as always, and is amazing here, I was absolutely shocked by how he was full of emotion and anger, I have never really seen that from him before so it was really awesome to see that!, it's definitely one of his best acting performances!, he also brought his usual charisma!(Bronson Rules!!!!!).Angela Featherstone is especially fantastic here, I really felt sorry for her character, , as she did a fantastic job here, it was a tough character to nail but she did it perfectly!, I loved her. Sebastian Spence is really good here as Eddie Fein, he was a good young cop and had a likable character I liked him a lot. John Vernon had a small role here but looked somewhat bored, it was still cool to see him though.Barbara Williams is really good here as the other daughter, she also had some great emotional moments and was quite likable, I really liked her. Lesley-Anne Down is beautiful, and is simply put full of class!, I just wished she had more screen time!, her character was also wonderfully mysterious. Daniel Baldwin is surprisingly pretty good here as Ben Fein I actually liked him. Cynthia Belliveau is also good with what she had to do. Rest of the cast do fine. Overall i highly recommend this one!. ***1/2 out of 5 i look forward to seeing the two sequels.