Entertainment Weekly
"[A] tightly acted and emotionally bruising corrupt-cop family drama that feels like the kind of serious, slow-burn NYPD movie nobody -- not even Lumet -- makes anymore....Edward Norton is in top form..." -- Grade: B 10/31/2008 p.45Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "As GLORY's hard center, Norton pitches an angry, frayed performance brimming with outrage and strikes sparks with an on-form Farrell, who seizes his character with gusto." 12/01/2008 p.52 Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "PRIDE AND GLORY sizzles with a subversive subtext that questions blind loyalty to institutions, from the White House to Wall Street....Edward Norton is customarily excellent..." 11/30/2008 p.136 Premiere
"Employing some bold cinematographic choices, including a documentary-style POV that follows some of walking-talking action from behind, O'Connor mixes up the action and keeps the film buoyant." 10/24/2008 Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "It's an eminently serviceable thriller, then, one that sketches a convincing portrait of brotherhood among New York's Finest amid moments of effective high drama..." 12/01/2008 p.82 ReelViews 7 of 10
The generic cop movie has become such a tedious bore that when something like The Departed comes along, it injects energy into a genre that, over time, has lost momentum to a dried-up wellspring of creativity. Even as recently as the '80s, when Dirty Harry was still patrolling his beat and the Miami Vice detectives were taking down bad guys every Friday night, the cop story could provide the adrenaline-and-testosterone cocktail that has since been ceded to other action/thriller sub-genres. Cop movies have recently fallen into a formulaic rut, with all the expected plot points lined up like dominos waiting to be knocked over. Pride and Glory, from director Gavin O'Connor, tries, at least to a degree, to escape that vortex. It wants to be different; yet, in the end, the elements that separate this police corruption film from those with similar themes and subjects are those that derail the climax and send this freight train careening out of control...For well over 90 minutes, the writing is as solid as the acting. The narrative generates sufficient tension to make us forget how familiar many of the beats are and the intelligent way in which the investigation is handled makes us wonder why more police thrillers couldn't be like this. The disappointment engendered by the ending is hard to express. There are at least three major problems. Without being specific, I can say that one has to do with an incident at a convenience store, another relates to a fist-fight, and a third employs a coincidence of staggering magnitude. The final 15 minutes are so awful that it's difficult to believe that the bulk of the film is actually decent. Some movies can survive a bad climax well enough to receive a recommendation. Pride and Glory is not among their number. - James Berardinelli
Reel.com 9 of 10
Police thrillers these days aspire to replicate the CSI formula on the big screen. Not Pride and Glory. It wants to be this generation's Serpico...Director Gavin O'Connor certainly understands the difference between the two. Though Glory lays out a complex yet solvable mystery, it's far more interested in loyalty and the familial bonds that exist among lifetime police officers. It also wears its adoration for the badge--and those who wear it--on its sleeve...O'Connor co-wrote the film with Joe Carnahan, the screenwriter of the similarly gritty Narc and the bullet-ridden Smokin' Aces. These men possess such intimate knowledge of "The Job" that I'd be willing to bet either or both have police officers in their immediate family...O'Connor, for his part, makes a number of intelligent decisions. He doesn't hurry his action, giving his absorbing characters room to breathe. He shoots a sullied version of New York that's organic and real, not the polished Hollywood version we too often get on screen. Credit cinematographer Declan Quinn for diving into slummy tenements and low-lit police precincts, as well as modest suburban homes which officers could afford on an NYPD salary. O'Connor makes one false step near the picture's end, and for that brief moment, Pride doesn't feel right...Because of its subject matter--noble cops investigating crooked brethren--O'Connor's Pride reminded me of The Departed, though I preferred this to Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winner. Pride isn't flashy or tricky. It doesn't fall back on incessant double-crosses and last-second betrayals to confuse its audience. When a script is as good as Carnahan's and O'Connor's, it doesn't have to. - Sean O'Connell
|
