'One Tough Cop' Easy To Hate

One Tough Cop, a true-life police movie that opens Friday, contains too much of almost everything - macho swagger, profanity, and grisly details of a brutal crime.

Starring Stephen Baldwin and Chris Penn, the movie is about a New York police detective who is under investigation for fraternizing with criminals he's known since childhood.

The screenplay is so laughably macho I think that the writer might have gotten his finger stuck on the "f" key, says CBS This Morning film critic Gene Siskel, adding that the movie may have set a film record for the number of times the "blank you" phrase is used.

Baldwin and his life-long mobster buddy, played by Mike McGlone, also are in conflict over a woman - the beautiful Gina Gershon.

Everyone in Baldwin's life causes him problems. He's a magnet for trouble. For example, his partner, played by Penn, is an alcoholic and has major gambling debts.

In this who-can-act-the-most-macho movie, Baldwin tries to justify his reputation as a clean cop by investigating the brutal rape and mutilation of a nun, needlessly described repeatedly in ghastly detail.

"Do we really need to know that she was lacerated 40 times and not 41?" asks Siskel.

At the end of the picture, the audience learns that it is based on the true story of Bo Dietl, a New York City policeman.

"Of course, that made me think of a much better film, Serpico. That's the one to rent before seeing One Tough Cop," recommended Siskel.

Among the recent films that Siskel recommended to his audience was The Impostors, which he calls "a wonderful comedy, a farce, rare to get these days."