Sylvester Stallone's run as one of the action gods of American cinema appeared to be drawing to a close in the mid 1990s, as he watched the big-budget likes of "Judge Dredd," "Assassins," and "Daylight" flop with critics and fall short of box office expectations. The whole decade could've been a wash for Stallone had it not been for his 1993 comeback with "Cliffhanger" and "Demolition Man." Otherwise, the release of a new mainstream Sly flick was greeted with yawns at best.

So, when Stallone was offered the role of Freddy Heflin in James Mangold's "Cop Land" (against the director's initial wishes) , the doughy sheriff of a New Jersey town where corrupt NYPD officers (led by Harvey Keitel's Lieutenant Ray Donlan) have taken up residence to crime it up with relative impunity (due to a le

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