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Rating: 9/10 (8 July 2005)

This film is fantastic. Al Pacino is Sonny, a young punk who decides one hot afternoon to rob a bank with his friend Sal so that he can pay for his lover's sex change operation.
What begins as a simple plan to walk in, get the cash and walk out in ten minutes turns into a desperate battle for survival as the cops turn up and the whole thing turns into a hostage situation. There's hardly any cash in the vault anyway as Sonny is given the wrong information, and if that's not disappointing enough, there's a load of irritating women employees and a manager who appear to add tension to the situation by occasionally revealing how much they hate these thieves and making a mockery of their plan.
Yet as the film goes on the hostages do begin to sympathise with why they decided to rob their bank and the tension subsides somewhat although the mood is still kept to nerve snapping effect. As the cops move in using family members and other tactics to draw them out you feel that time is running out, and that the chance of the robbers getting away is about a million to one.
In their final bid to escape, by holding the hostages at gunpoint and demanding a jet out of the country, it turns to tragedy. How you ask? well I suggest you buy it or tape it or both, heck it's such a good film it's worth it.
The tension is excruciating and Pacino is on unbelievable form as the man facing the prison doors or his grave, the mood created by Sidney Lumet is spectacular and the only reason it gets a 9 is because it simply is not as good entertainment as say, Taxi Driver, The Silence of the Lambs or The Godfather. It is no doubt a very good film and I could watch it over and over again, but it does not get a 10. Yet I expect many would give it ten, and they may be right. I can only suggest that you watch this very unique film, that is based on the true event of a New York bank robbery on August 22nd 1972. And I can honestly say you will love it.