What can I say about this, another dirty cop film. I've given this 6 out of 10 but do feel I may be being slightly generous. Ups to the cast and their performances and the film was watchable, though not necessarily memorable; certainly nothing new. I'm normally no fan of Norton and not a big fan of Farrell's at all but thought they both did pretty good jobs in their roles, with the possible exception of Farrell struggling to hold his accent and on occasion nearly breaking into full Irish.
While the story was nothing new, I thought at times during this film that it had the potential to be really good. As I stated before, the performances were pretty good and the interactions between the characters seemed pretty credible. Where it let itself down badly, despite what I presume was some qualified technical advice or knowledge of the profession by the director, was the reliance on contrivance, the abruptness of plot solutions (SPOILER - Let's have that character beaten to death near the end to avoid any plot complications and allow for a tidier ending). Thus a film reliant on character interaction and relationships seems to lose nearly all of this as they get down the business end of the film and descend into a 'one man crusade'.
In relation to the heavy contrivance, the story relies far too heavily on 'gangsters' wearing uniforms and characters who are devoid of intelligence, good judgement and common sense when those should be to the fore. Bad judgement and carelessness abounds in order to keep the story and suspense moving along. (SPOILERS - We get to see the cop smart enough to wait in the car while his partner robs a convenience store because he doesn't want to be involved. When that partner gets into significant problems, what does he do, he runs inside and ends up taking a hostage and holding Police at bay. That was one of a few parts that really stretched it. Also, our honest cop hero Norton's character, implicated in a homicide and with a warrant out for his arrest, confronting his accuser alone at gun point and ordering all the other patrons out of the establishment. The accuser ends up being dead and in handcuffs. Thst sort of crap undermines what what the whole character was about, a supposedly 'smart' guy put on the case because he was so capable and level headed).
All the negatives aside, I thought this was (and is) worth a look, a bit better than 'Street Kings' (also reviewed by me). I was just disappointed because this one could easily have been a really good film with a bit more thought and application to some credible logic to the behaviour of the characters and outcomes.
While the story was nothing new, I thought at times during this film that it had the potential to be really good. As I stated before, the performances were pretty good and the interactions between the characters seemed pretty credible. Where it let itself down badly, despite what I presume was some qualified technical advice or knowledge of the profession by the director, was the reliance on contrivance, the abruptness of plot solutions (SPOILER - Let's have that character beaten to death near the end to avoid any plot complications and allow for a tidier ending). Thus a film reliant on character interaction and relationships seems to lose nearly all of this as they get down the business end of the film and descend into a 'one man crusade'.
In relation to the heavy contrivance, the story relies far too heavily on 'gangsters' wearing uniforms and characters who are devoid of intelligence, good judgement and common sense when those should be to the fore. Bad judgement and carelessness abounds in order to keep the story and suspense moving along. (SPOILERS - We get to see the cop smart enough to wait in the car while his partner robs a convenience store because he doesn't want to be involved. When that partner gets into significant problems, what does he do, he runs inside and ends up taking a hostage and holding Police at bay. That was one of a few parts that really stretched it. Also, our honest cop hero Norton's character, implicated in a homicide and with a warrant out for his arrest, confronting his accuser alone at gun point and ordering all the other patrons out of the establishment. The accuser ends up being dead and in handcuffs. Thst sort of crap undermines what what the whole character was about, a supposedly 'smart' guy put on the case because he was so capable and level headed).
All the negatives aside, I thought this was (and is) worth a look, a bit better than 'Street Kings' (also reviewed by me). I was just disappointed because this one could easily have been a really good film with a bit more thought and application to some credible logic to the behaviour of the characters and outcomes.