Family of Cops

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.

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.

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.

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.

Enjoyable two hours of The Great One and Featherstone,a fine old Irish Catholic name,the two of them on screen made my time.

Glad,this film aficionado is for the work done.Delirious,that I was not viewing boring,untalented actors such as Kevin Costner Harrison Ford{ugh}and the two least agreeable and lazy Samuel L. Jackson and the "boor" Morg. Freeman.

This work is anything but a boring ensemble.

Charles Bronson's presence at any age brings respect and reality to this murder drama and work by police.

Since when is growing old a crime?Charley got a late start in films due to his growing up poor in the nine county Pittsburgh area.

I regard this film highly...made in America too.