Richard Gere's dazzling performance as a very crooked cop, who has no hesitation in getting people killed, fires this brilliant and flashy thriller.

Taciturn Andy Garcia is also at his best as the newcomer to Internal Affairs (the cops' department that investigates cops), whose examination of one corrupt policeman, a former buddy, leads him to an obsession with the buddy's boss (Gere).

Garcia has a strange marriage with Nancy Travis that degenerates into abuse and foul-mouthed screaming matches and he also has a lesbian partner - Laurie Metcalf in another of the film's distinguished perfromances.

With his scalding film-making style, British director Mike Figgis, turns this up from just a straight action film into one with great intelligence and dramatic power.

But at its heart, it's always kept alive by the spark of Gere's understated but lethal menace.