Pride and Glory

Synopsis

This is a gritty picture of the NYPD, starring Edward Norton (The Incredible Hulk) and Colin Farrell (Miami Vice) who play brother-in-laws in a family of cops. Loyalties are tested when Ed's character Ray investigates a case involving his older brother and brother-in-law. Not good, because this brings pressure to the family to choose between their loyalties to one another and their allegiance to the police department.

Review

Honestly, I really don’t even know what to say about this movie because it’s a “seen that” type of flick. You all know… Every dude in the family is a cop. there’s a cop dad who has cop sons. There are dirty grimy cops and there are good cops. There are the ties that bind and the loyalty blue codes. There’s gun fire, the underground, and unsavory people you really don’t want to associate with. Pride and Glory is all of these things. Now I’m not going to beat it up too much because there was a good pace to film with each scene moving the story forward, and the movie stayed true to the trailer. Now that’s what I’m talking about. All said, Pride and Glory is not great, but you will probably stay involved with this movie until the end.

Pride is about a family of cops…yes I know, how original. Anyhoo, a drug bust has gone bad and four of New York City’s finest have been shot dead and the rest of the boys in blue want revenge. Ray Tierney (Norton), whose been laying low for some time because of a provious case gone wrong, is ask by his father Chief of Manhattan Detectives, Francis Tierney, Sr. (Jon Voight, An America Carol) if he would help his older brother Francis Tierney Jr. (Noah Emmerich, Tumbleweeds) head up the cop killing investigation. Dad knows Ray is a good cop and he needs a task force he can trust, plus the dead cops are under his brother’s command. Maybe Ray can find the killer, save his bro's reputation and boost his career all at the same time.

Begrudgingly, Ray appeases his father and jumps right into the case, finding out things he wished he didn’t know. The shadiness he uncovers points right in the direction of his brother’s department and his cop brother-in-law Jimmy Egan’s (Colin Farell, Miami Vice).

Colin Farell did pretty well with the NY accent. Every once in a while I could hear his Irish accent trying to leak out. His character Jimmy is a straight up (*&*))__*&^& and a (*&**&). He treats his wife and kids like diamonds, but everyone else...mmmm, he doesn’t give a hoot. Just as crooked and mean as he can be. Jimmy rolls up into this man’s home while he's having a lovely meal with his family and Jimmy just abuses his badge to get answers from home dude with an unmerciful beat down. He gets even meaner than that folks, and it’s almost sadistic. He is no kind of right.

John Voight is just there in the movie. We all know he is an excellent actor, but his part is what it is – just okay. Nick Nolte actually was supposed to play the role of Francis Tierney Sr. but I heard he had a knee problem. And a drinking problem. You know if you have a knee complication, you can’t stand for 15 hour days. And if you have a drinking problem, you’re not standing much at all.

Ed Norton did what he needed to do for his role as Ray Tierney. I don’t know why, but Ed looks so frail to me. Even when he runs with a gun, he doesn’t pull off a tough cop to me. He looks like one of those men who got beat up at 3:00 after school twice a week. He played that punk in Fight Club. And the squawky voice doesn’t really say, ”I'll protect you baby” the way I think it would need to. Thoughts?

The one thing I really liked about Pride was the subplots. The family’s day to day life with all the ups and downs that it brings. It’s believable and very good.

Pride is a very long movie with an outrageous and embellished ending. There was even a scene toward the end where Ray and Jimmy square off, with Irish fight music to boot, in an Irish bar. They lay their guns on the table and start SCRAPPIN’. Now come on. Couldn’t they have thought of something more original then an Irish boy fight? Yeah, this is a good flick to catch during a matinee because despite its downsides you won’t feel cheated by the end. If you miss it, make sure to rent it.

My Rating ~ 3 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)