Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Keen young Raymold Avila joins the Internal Affairs Department of the Los Angeles police. He and partner Amy Wallace are soon looking closely at the activities of cop Dennis Peck whose financial holdings start to suggest something shady. Indeed Peck is involved in any number of dubious or downright criminal activities. He is also devious, a womaniser, and a clever manipulator, and he starts to turn his attention on Avila.
Internal Affairs is elevated significantly by Richard Gere's magnetic, genuinely unsettling performance as Dennis Peck — one of the more underrated villain turns of the era — and Andy Garcia holds his own as the increasingly destabilized Avila. The cat-and-mouse psychological dynamic gives the film real tension. The plot is serviceable but fairly conventional police corruption territory, and the ending deflates somewhat, resolving things a bit too neatly and abruptly after the psychological build-up. Cinematography is competent but unremarkable late-80s crime film work. Novelty is moderate — the film distinguishes itself mainly through its character focus and Gere's performance rather than any structural or tonal innovation.