Pride and Glory Review

Fuck David Simon! That's right. Fuck him in his award winning, best television show inventing ear. This man has done more to ruin my cinema experiences this year than Adam Sandler, Jason Statham and Paul W.S. Anderson combined. For the uninitiated, non-band wagon jumping people out there David Simon creatored a television programme called The Wire. Its so good it makes any other form of media which involves police, drugs, deprived communities or actual bloody characters look completely shit. Considering thats mainly what Hollywood specialises in the cinema is now a dull, lifeless place to be. Thanks Dave, thanks a fucking bunch.

When four po'lice are killed in a botched drug bust, a family full of cops find their lives turned upside down. There is 'old man cop' (Jon Voight) whose a little passed his time and unsure what the right thing to do is. He is the dad to 'sergeant cop' (Noah Emmerich) who wants to cover stuff up but his dying wife won't let him. He is brother to 'out of retirement cop' (Edward Norton) whose returned from filing papers to help the investigation and 'do the right thing'. Lastly he's brother-in-law to 'dirty cop' (Colin Farrell) who wants to do bad things. He is dirty. Of course he is he's Colin Farrell.

Pride and Glory is at times an incredibly brave movie. There are long scenes in Hispanic with no subtitles, a real emphasis on relationships over shooty-shooty-bang-bangs and an ending that actually requires some thought and conversation after, rather than tying it all in a neat little bow. The acting is top-notch across the board, even if at times you might feel like the words 'For Your Consideration' are plastered along the bottom of the screen. Edward Norton takes the understated role of whispering to witnesses until they tell him what he wants to know. While Colin has a scene with a baby and an iron that will have you open-mouthed.

This baby/iron scene isn't the only stand-out moment. An awkward christmas meal has Jon Voight being given a role he can actually get into and while the opening may suffer a little from herky jerky cam it throws you into the movie straight away. There's a famous quote attributed to many people including Howard Hawks that a film can be declared a success if it has three good scenes and no bad ones. Well with that in mind Pride and Glory is a definite success but as Owen Nicholls once said "If it ain't as good as The Wire, fuck it," Altogether now, whatd'ya know about Bodymore, whad'ya know about Bodymore, Bodymore...