Worth three hours of your time

Rating: 8/10 (11 October 1999)

Yes, this movie is long and emotionally exhausting, but it's never boring. The action, when it comes, is well worth waiting for, but the primary reason for watching this movie is the characterization. Most of the reviewers have it wrong--de Niro and Pacino are not "identical twins" who could easily switch places even though both are absorbed in their work (robbery is a "business" for Neil McCauley, de Niro's character) and both have disastrous personal lives. As the Time review correctly points out, Hanna (Pacino) is high-strung and intuitive while McCauley is cool and intelligent, depending on reason rather than instinct. Both are capable of brutality but neither is innately vicious. Most viewers will like them both and have a hard time deciding who to root for.
Much the same can be said of the supporting characters, though the lives and personalities of McCauley's gang (especially Chris, played rather mechanically by Val Kilmer) are somewhat more fully developed than those of Hanna's crew. We're given just enough of a glimpse into the life and character of Bosko (Ted Levine) to wish to know more. (What IS he doing sitting in a bar with a tarty-looking girl on his lap, especially since Hanna is also there with his WIFE? Guess I need to watch it again to find the answer to that one.)
The cinematography is excellent, particularly the night scene where the helicopter flies by the gleaming glass towers of LA's sky scrapers. The bank robbery scene feels so real that your heart is pounding regardless of whom you're rooting for. And of course, Michael Mann deserves credit both for his directing and for his intelligent, mostly realistic, script.
There are a few flaws in the movie, but this movie is worth the nearly three hours of your time that it takes to fully develop the plot and the two main characters. The few predictable places are more than made up for by surprises throughout the movie--few or none of them implausible. There's also the satisfaction of seeing one really despicable character get what he deserves. More important, we see two seemingly hardboiled men, one on each side of the law, reveal their humanity.