Pride and Glory (2008)

Good acting, very realistically portrayal of police brutality, but the story is too predictable and has too many flaws and slow downs to make it stand out as something special."Pride and Glory" is made with attention to detail. It is not bad, but not original either. Frustratingly mediocre. I did see this movie before, but it was totally erased from my memory. And after watching it again, I suddenly understood WHY I had totally forgotten about it, because it has every cop cliche in it. I never got really thrilled, only the beginning was interesting, thanks to Edward Norton's role in this movie. He is great and saves this movie. The story of this movie is about a number of cops that turned criminal, one of them played by Collin Farrell. Edward Norton and John Voight are the other 2 family members and they act excellently. Really great. BUT the movie unfortunately stretches well over 2 hours and I guess almost half an hour is solely about family visits and birthdays. Just half an hour of nothing else but watching birthday parties and listening to family members chatting about diseases in the family. These attempts to give the characters more context by showing those family birthdays and showing these sick family members are to be admired but unfortunately all this family stuff just slows down this copmovie. I skipped these family scenes and when I start skipping scnenes I know deep down that the movie has lost its edge...I am left with a bland feeling of frustration. It could have been a lot better. But it wasnt. Acting is great though, but sometimes I wished I wouldnt get lured into watching these cliche police stories because of the great actors in it. Because without an original thrilling story the best acting cant save it from going under...

Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) comes from a family of cops, and was the best of the lot until an accident in the line of duty cut his career short. One night, after multiple officers are shot and killed, it becomes clear that there is a large corruption ring at work within the NYPD, and the brass turn to Ray to find out the truth, a truth that could lead him right back home. Edward Norton is truly a chameleon in that he can play absolutely any role and be believable. It doesn't matter if he's some computer geek or a tough as nails cop, he always does a great job and no matter what he's in, the film is always going to have an air of credibility for it. The rest of the cast, as well as the story are also pretty good, but this film isn't without it's problems. As with other films that have complex stories and large casts, the story moves so quickly and characters are introduced so fast, that it's difficult to keep track of what's going on and nearly impossible to remember who is who. The story is great and the main characters are well written, but there is so much going on, that it is very easy to get lost in all the side stories. The bottom line is that Pride and Glory would be better suited as a TV series than a movie, but then you wouldn't have the big named cast, and it probably wouldn't last four episodes. The actions scenes are great, the main characters are intense, and the story was terrific if not a bit more complicated than it needed to be.

SPOILER ALERT!!! I really wanted to like this and it could have been a really good movie with just a little change in the story. Instead it was completely absurd.20 minutes into this and I already knew that they had way too much going on to ever get around to telling a great story. Too many personal angles: face-shot cop with a past and an ex-wife, another wife with cancer, drunk dad, and bad brother-in-law. Do-able if you're making a TV series and they do it all they time, but a two hour movie just isn't the vehicle for this big of a mess.Too much crying and mourning: Colin Farrel spazzing out at the crime scene (I really hate it when people break stuff to show just how angry they are), wife of dead cop freaking out at the hospital, the junkie ho sobbing through a long scene, cancer mom bawling, dirty cop boo-hooing in the back of a reporter's car, It wasn't clear at all that the guy killed in the bathtub was Tezo. He was only on the screen in one other scene and his face wasn't shown in the tub so when I didn't even realize that Tezo was dead until it was talked about later in the story. It was a bit confusing. And what about the dead guy on the stairs? They didn't even mention that again. They also went way overboard on the killings. It just got too out of hand and unbelievable I felt. After the cop got shot in the bodega he kills an innocent bystander. The typical "Chinese Downhill" ending where if you don't know how to end it you just have everything blow up and go to hell. A fistfight? Completely and utterly ridiculous. And what a completely stupid fight it is.P.S. The title sucks, too. The Pride and the Glory? What is that? It sounds like an adult diaper.

Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight and Noah Emmerich star in a gritty, tension-packed tale of a multi-generational family of cops facing hard realities and tough choices in this movie entitled,Pride And Glory.Director Gavin O'Connor collaborates with screenwriter Joe Carnahan on this family-focused police drama concerning an honest homicide detective assigned to investigate the precinct run by his potentially crooked older brother and as the investigation begins to reveal some troubling facts about the precinct, it gradually becomes apparent that the policeman who is also the older brother's best friend may be the man orchestrating many of the suspected crimes.Pride and Glory is more than just lousy for it's an amalgam of every bad tendency of the current cinema, stitched together into a single monstrosity of a cop movie.The only saving grace is Edward Norton, whose mere presence raises the level of a film several notches.