Family of Cops (1995) Reviews

• A little better than the usual TV copy movie.

  dermetz2000-07-16

  The cast makes this better than average MFTV movie. Bronson is his usual self although he talks more here than in a lot of films. Dan Baldwin gives a performance that is equal to his Homicide role. The support members of the "family" are average except Featherstone who does a great job. Not a movie to put on your must list but a good one to watch if in the middle of rerun season or, like myself, have 4 VCRs going most of the time.

• Great T.V Cop Drama, I Was Really Surprised By How Emotional And Intense It Was, With Top Notch Performances All Around!

  callanvass2005-12-16

  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.

• Charles Bronson smelling of soap opera

  rodrig582016-09-28

  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.

• Dull ensemble drama

  Leofwine_draca2011-08-30

  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.

• AN EXCELLENT THRILLER,BRONSON IS GREAT

  lukem-527602018-09-04

  This is a really good Thriller & yes IT'S a t.v movie but hey if it's good it's good don't matter what the budget!!! Family Of Cops is a well made Cop Thriller with that nice cop thriller musical score that alot of t.v detective films have & works lovely here,The Legendary Charles Bronson is excellent here as Paul Fien an old school tough detective who is put in a tough situation when his Daughter is framed for murder. Bronson really gives a great performance & infact this is one of his finest performances of his career!!! Paul Fien is also one of his best characters ever stands right next to the vigilante Paul Kersey from the Death Wish franchise. Older & wiser & very comfortable in this role & Bronson outshines everyone else in the cast & the cast are all good especially Daniel Baldwin as one of pauls son's whose also a cop, there is alot of Family drama going on in this story & murder & mystery & a great lead in Bronson so although a t.v flick it's actually more than that to me it's one of his best movies!!! I love the Character Paul Fien he's an old school cop with morals & the guy you want backing you up in the line of duty. I'm a huge Bronson fan & i love the Death Wish franchise & this little cop thriller is one of my fave Bronson flicks as it has such a nice pace & a nice atmosphere to it a good film to watch late at night. The 2nd family of cops film was also very good but part 3 wasn't very good & some of the characters are played by different actors & that always ruins it for me but this first film is excellent & part 2 is very good so that's good enough Bronson entertainment for me.