Not exactly the feel good movie of the upcoming holiday season, “Pride and Glory” is a brutal drama about police corruption and family loyalty that just happens to play out over one memorable Christmas in New York. Happy holidays are incongruous to the film’s subject matter, so it’s probably a good decision to release the film right before Halloween. At least the movie’s tone will be right for audiences looking for a scary night at the movies.
The movie kicks off, literally, as an inter-squad football game that is interrupted by the shocking news that four police officers have been gunned down by a drug dealer named Tezo (Ramon Rodriguez). The whole police force mobilizes to catch the cop-killer, including a trio of police brothers; Ray (Edward Norton), Francis (Noah Emmerich) and brother-in-law Jimmy (Collin Farrell). Ray is pushed onto a special task force by his father (Jon Voight) who wants justice, but isn’t prepared for the personal tragedy that will accompany his son’s dogged investigation into the murders.
I won’t reveal any more, even though the trailer gives away the film’s major secrets, not to mention that “Pride and Glory” is a dirty cop drama so predictable that most audiences will know instinctively what’s going to happen before the final reel. Ray pursues the truth, even as it tears his family apart. Ray is an impossibly noble-but-scarred hero, so things are bound to turn out badly.
Like I said, happy holidays everybody.
Story predictability aside, “Pride and Glory” features solid acting all around. Norton is particularly good, but he’s almost always great in these types of roles. The film is intense, stopping only once for a bit of unintentional levity as the two brother cops mete out justice through a good old fashioned Irish bar fight.
The bottom line is that this is one of those workmanlike films that does everything well, but never really transcends the material. Fans of gritty police procedurals, or fans of any of these actors will be happy here, but there’s nothing to make “Pride and Glory” stand out above the countless other dirty cop movies that we’ve seen a million times before. Even the title is generic.
Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published bi-weekly in The Port Arthur News and weekly on KFDM-TV. Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@kavutv.com.
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October 23, 2008
No pride in this generic cop flick
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