Dreck

Rating: 4/10 (5 March 2003)

It is rare when you can identify the exact point where a movie goes horribly wrong. Al Pacino pulls Robert Di Niro over in an unmarked police car and says: "How about a cup of coffee?" I can just see a commitee of studio execs (they roam in packs like hyenas) saying "We need to have a meeting between the cop and master criminal, to give the movie, you know, more personal tension. Plus, it's Pacino and Di Niro, how can it miss?" It missed by a mile.
After the friendly coffee talk, everything slides quickly downhill. Plot holes open up like fault lines, little sub plots rise up with no rhyme or reason, then get cut off. (witness the ex-con turned short order cook subplot.) "Emotional" scenes with peripheral characters get tacked on to the end, I guess to tug at our heart strings, since they add nothing to the plot or to our understanding of the characters.
Everyone seemed to be going through the motions on this one. What a shame, considering the cast. This movie is not worth the talent put together to make it.
Oh, and it drags on FOREVER. Apparently the editor got shot in the big- obligatory-bank-robbery-scene, judging by the lack of evidence of his existence afterward.
4/10