The two Family of Cops Canadian co-produced TV films I,ve seen so far are serviceable vehicles for the aging Charles Bronson and both make interesting use of a number of Milwaukee settings,even though in some cases the locations were faked in several nearby Ontario cities.The sequel places an interesting stress on religion,as it involves the murder of a Catholic priest in a Easten European community,,and the main suspicion falling on a group of emigre Russian Jewish thugs.And it turns out, I don,t recall much being said about this in the first entry,that police inspector Bronson,s large family is Jewish.After the crime is finally solved,there is a charming sequence of the family gathered,complete with skullcaps,candles,chicken and challah,for a Shabbas meal.
7 Reviews
Actually entertaining enough...
paul_haakonsen9 April 2024
Right, well I don't think I've ever heard about this 1997 movie titled "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II", much less actually watched it. But I had the opportunity to do so, as part of a Charles Bronson movie marathon here in 2024, so of course I sat down to watch it.
I haven't watched the 1995 movie "Family of Cops", so I have no idea how much of a continuation of the first movie this 1997 sequel proved to be. And with no knowledge of the first movie, I had no expectations to "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II", nor did I know what I was in for, aside from it being a movie with Charles Bronson in the lead.
So in a sense, I would say that writer Joel Blasberg and director David Greene had every opportunity to entertain me with this 1997 movie. And they actually did so, because the storyline was an entertaining and enjoyable one, and the movie was certainly doing its job as a movie is supposed to; entertain.
The movie has a couple of familiar faces on the cast list, aside from Charles Bronson, with the likes of Angela Featherstone, Sebastian Spence, David Ferry and Joe Penny. I will say that the acting performances in the movie were fairly good.
Sure, "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II" is not at the top of Charles Bronson's movies, but it definitely is well-worth sitting down and spending 94 minutes on watching. But it is hardly a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing.
My rating of director David Greene's 1997 movie "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II" lands on a five out of ten stars.
I haven't watched the 1995 movie "Family of Cops", so I have no idea how much of a continuation of the first movie this 1997 sequel proved to be. And with no knowledge of the first movie, I had no expectations to "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II", nor did I know what I was in for, aside from it being a movie with Charles Bronson in the lead.
So in a sense, I would say that writer Joel Blasberg and director David Greene had every opportunity to entertain me with this 1997 movie. And they actually did so, because the storyline was an entertaining and enjoyable one, and the movie was certainly doing its job as a movie is supposed to; entertain.
The movie has a couple of familiar faces on the cast list, aside from Charles Bronson, with the likes of Angela Featherstone, Sebastian Spence, David Ferry and Joe Penny. I will say that the acting performances in the movie were fairly good.
Sure, "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II" is not at the top of Charles Bronson's movies, but it definitely is well-worth sitting down and spending 94 minutes on watching. But it is hardly a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing.
My rating of director David Greene's 1997 movie "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II" lands on a five out of ten stars.
Utterly without merit
Leofwine_draca18 January 2013
BREACH OF FAITH, the second in the FAMILY OF COPS trilogy, is a terrible film. The plot is the same old nonsense about the Russian mafia and it exudes a terrible TV movie atmosphere where everything is played safe and there are no surprises around any of the corners.
Even worse, I was watching this for Charles Bronson alone - what other reason is there? - and he's given even less to do than in the first movie. He takes a back seat to the members of his other family, who aren't interesting in the least, and in his few scenes he seems elderly, doddering across the screen, mumbling his barely coherent lines. You feel sorry for him, remembering what once was.
Even a briefly rousing climax can't lift what's come before, and BREACH OF FAITH is utterly without merit. I can't say I'm looking forward to the final part of the trilogy...
Even worse, I was watching this for Charles Bronson alone - what other reason is there? - and he's given even less to do than in the first movie. He takes a back seat to the members of his other family, who aren't interesting in the least, and in his few scenes he seems elderly, doddering across the screen, mumbling his barely coherent lines. You feel sorry for him, remembering what once was.
Even a briefly rousing climax can't lift what's come before, and BREACH OF FAITH is utterly without merit. I can't say I'm looking forward to the final part of the trilogy...
Bronson is finally showing his age.
Jakeroo17 February 1999
Paranoid and suspicious
bkoganbing10 July 2015
In this next to last film for Charles Bronson and the second in the Family Of Cops series, Breach Of Faith shows an old Bronson now playing a grandfather, not unlike John Wayne in his last decade. Face it the man was 76 years old when he did this film. What were people expecting? Clint Eastwood has certainly acknowledged his age in those few times nowadays that he goes in front of the camera.
The Feins are involved with an execution style killing of a priest, someone who was of the Catholic faith went to confession that the big Russian mobster in Milwaukee is afraid the beans will be spilled. Not likely that's about to happen, but it's emphasized that Russians are paranoid and suspicious by nature, none more so than their criminals.
But I refuse to believe they would be going after the police and their families. Even they know that's asking for trouble.
Not a good one for Mr. Bronson.
The Feins are involved with an execution style killing of a priest, someone who was of the Catholic faith went to confession that the big Russian mobster in Milwaukee is afraid the beans will be spilled. Not likely that's about to happen, but it's emphasized that Russians are paranoid and suspicious by nature, none more so than their criminals.
But I refuse to believe they would be going after the police and their families. Even they know that's asking for trouble.
Not a good one for Mr. Bronson.
Breach of good scriptwriting
feindlicheubernahme6 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
I thought the first Family of Cops film was actually pretty good and so decided to watch this one right after. Unfortunately, the second one is not as good.
For one thing, an inexplicable focus on Bronson's family's religion. Even though the case revolves around the killing of a Catholic priest, from the very beginning we're bashed over the head over and over and over with the fact that the Feins are Jewish (something that I don't remember being referred to at all in the first film) leading us to believe that it will somehow be relevant to the plot. Maybe there will be animosity between the Catholic and Jewish communities because the former suspects the latter of being responsible for the priest's murder. Or, conversely, there might be a coming together of the two faiths to deal with the crisis. Or maybe we'll see the Feins facing anti-Semitism from fellow police officers or the public as they try to do their jobs. But no, none of this happens. The family's faith has absolutely no bearing on the plot, leading you to wonder why it is given such prominence.
Second, I had wondered during AFoC 1 why detective Anne Meyers seemed to have so much screen time despite the actress' acting not being exactly dazzling and the character not serving any real purpose other than to gaze lovingly at old Paul. In 2, she has even more screen time but still has nothing to do apart from spend most of her shift time with him - although she's supposed to be his son's police partner - and show her adoration. After I'd finished watching the film, I saw on IMDB that Kim Weeks (Anne) has only eleven acting credits to her name, three of which are for this trilogy - and that she and Charles Bronson got married the year after this came out. So it's a case of Bronson doing his usual thing of forcing directors to put his current girlfriend/wife in his films. Unlike Jill Ireland, however, Weeks has no acting ability and isn't even given a storyline or justification for being there.
On a related point, none of the women seem to get a fair shake of the stick. For me, the most interesting characters are Kate and Jackie. But they, just like the other ladies, seem to be only there to orbit around the men and/or look after children. I know it's A Family of Cops but with Kate being a lawyer, you would think they could easily do more with her and her job throughout the story, not just at the beginning. Even worse, Jackie, who actually is on the path to also becoming a cop, virtually disappears halfway through. More scenes of her experiences at the police academy and fewer scenes with Bronson's talentless squeeze would give some much-needed life to this film.
Even with the film's violent plot, we have far too many Hallmark Channel-type scenes where we're boringly shown how loving and non-judgemental the Fein family are with each other. As an example, Kate obtains the release of a very nasty 12-year-old at the beginning. The kid proceeds to kill Eddie's partner and place another officer in hospital. This should be the basis for recriminations and tension between Eddie and Kate, at least for a while. It would make for good drama. But no - Eddie has absolutely no hard feelings towards his sister and that whole plotline is just dropped. Because cops apparently don't care when their partners are killed.
Lastly, the Russians are so stereotypically one-note evil that they kill a priest just for knowing about a murder that they committed even though he can't ever reveal what he knows since it was told to him in the confessional. They don't realise that killing him is much more risky than just letting him be? Then they threaten a whole family of cops (and lawyer.) Then they assault them all. Eventually, they try to gun down one of those cops and his wife and kids in their home. Come on! If Russian gangsters were that stupid then there would be no Russian mafia, because they would all be either dead or in prison.
For one thing, an inexplicable focus on Bronson's family's religion. Even though the case revolves around the killing of a Catholic priest, from the very beginning we're bashed over the head over and over and over with the fact that the Feins are Jewish (something that I don't remember being referred to at all in the first film) leading us to believe that it will somehow be relevant to the plot. Maybe there will be animosity between the Catholic and Jewish communities because the former suspects the latter of being responsible for the priest's murder. Or, conversely, there might be a coming together of the two faiths to deal with the crisis. Or maybe we'll see the Feins facing anti-Semitism from fellow police officers or the public as they try to do their jobs. But no, none of this happens. The family's faith has absolutely no bearing on the plot, leading you to wonder why it is given such prominence.
Second, I had wondered during AFoC 1 why detective Anne Meyers seemed to have so much screen time despite the actress' acting not being exactly dazzling and the character not serving any real purpose other than to gaze lovingly at old Paul. In 2, she has even more screen time but still has nothing to do apart from spend most of her shift time with him - although she's supposed to be his son's police partner - and show her adoration. After I'd finished watching the film, I saw on IMDB that Kim Weeks (Anne) has only eleven acting credits to her name, three of which are for this trilogy - and that she and Charles Bronson got married the year after this came out. So it's a case of Bronson doing his usual thing of forcing directors to put his current girlfriend/wife in his films. Unlike Jill Ireland, however, Weeks has no acting ability and isn't even given a storyline or justification for being there.
On a related point, none of the women seem to get a fair shake of the stick. For me, the most interesting characters are Kate and Jackie. But they, just like the other ladies, seem to be only there to orbit around the men and/or look after children. I know it's A Family of Cops but with Kate being a lawyer, you would think they could easily do more with her and her job throughout the story, not just at the beginning. Even worse, Jackie, who actually is on the path to also becoming a cop, virtually disappears halfway through. More scenes of her experiences at the police academy and fewer scenes with Bronson's talentless squeeze would give some much-needed life to this film.
Even with the film's violent plot, we have far too many Hallmark Channel-type scenes where we're boringly shown how loving and non-judgemental the Fein family are with each other. As an example, Kate obtains the release of a very nasty 12-year-old at the beginning. The kid proceeds to kill Eddie's partner and place another officer in hospital. This should be the basis for recriminations and tension between Eddie and Kate, at least for a while. It would make for good drama. But no - Eddie has absolutely no hard feelings towards his sister and that whole plotline is just dropped. Because cops apparently don't care when their partners are killed.
Lastly, the Russians are so stereotypically one-note evil that they kill a priest just for knowing about a murder that they committed even though he can't ever reveal what he knows since it was told to him in the confessional. They don't realise that killing him is much more risky than just letting him be? Then they threaten a whole family of cops (and lawyer.) Then they assault them all. Eventually, they try to gun down one of those cops and his wife and kids in their home. Come on! If Russian gangsters were that stupid then there would be no Russian mafia, because they would all be either dead or in prison.
Crazy dark!
zach_elmquist6 April 2013
Family of Cops 2 is not as good as the first cause it is slow going but the cast is excellent and the story and dialogue are top notch. Viewers be warned though this is a TV movie it contains dark subject matter, violence, vulgar language, and some sexually charged scenes as well as dialogue. I wouldn't recommend this film to most viewers cause the story revolves around children, murder, and religion. I can't stress enough how twisted and dark the story line is in Family of Cops 2 and for that reason it is hard to find an audience that would be able to sit through the entire film without being adjatate and appalled by some of the scenes. The only thing viewers need to take away from Family of Cops 2 is Paul Fein's (Charles Bronson) youngest daughter has joined the police academy. Skip this movie unless you can handle the subject matter.
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