Netflix viewers raving over 'massively underrated' crime drama with star-studded cast

Netflix viewers are enjoying a 90s crime drama with a spectacular cast of Hollywood A-listers

The 1997 movie Cop Land starred Sylvester Stallone in what many reckoned was a career best performance as a sheriff of a New Jersey town just across the river from the bright lights of New York City.

His little town of Garrison is home to many officers of the NYPD, but when a serious crime is committed and New York's finest appear to be the culprits, he has to grapple with doing his job and doing what the old boy's network of cops expects of him.

While it wasn't a big hit at the box office when it released, critics found plenty to like about Cop Land and a new generation of viewers have discovered it on Netflix.

It turns out this 90s crime drama is exactly what a lot of viewers are looking for to punctuate their true crime documentary binges.

Miramax

Taking to social media to praise the film, Cop Land has been described as an 'underrated film' and a 'sleeper hit' while someone else called it 'a quality wee movie'.

Some fans of the movie said they'd heard it wasn't good when they were younger but since discovering it on Netflix had really enjoyed it.

Someone else called it a 'great film' and thought it had 'Stallone's best performance by far', which is high praise considering he's sharing a screen with the likes of Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta.

Fans of The Sopranos have particularly enjoyed discovering the movie on Netflix as viewers reckon there 'must be at least 40 percent of Sopranos cast there' in the film.

Cop Land director, James Mangold, told Vulture that in some ways the movie's star-studded cast 'overscaled' things beyond his original idea.

Miramax

He said he was 'very proud' of the film but had imagined the leading star to be 'someone you hadn't heard of before' - instead of a big name like Stallone.

Mangold said that fans of the actor going into the movie were expecting something very different from the action star, while he claimed that 'cinema fans' didn't want much to do with it thinking Cop Land was a 'transparent vehicle' for him to try and win an Oscar.

The director also said that his movie received quite a bit of executive meddling from Bob and Harvey Weinstein, saying they screened early versions of the movie to critics and told him it would get better reviews if he made certain changes.

Stallone, for his part, called Mangold 'the best director I ever worked with', though he thought the movie didn't help his career. Despite the good reviews an unspectacular box office showing led people to think his star might have burned out.