Almost Great

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 2004)

For those of you that have scene it, this is for you. For those that have not, read a different review, you won't know what I'm talking about.
The main problem most people had with this caps-n-robbers, cat-n-mouse movie was the length. Nearing three hours I understood what they were talking about. This movie drags on unnecessarily at points and you wonder when the action is going to commence.
I thought about that, it's the action that drives the movie, the plot that justifies it. What about this movie is so unnecessary? It came to me. The families, the friends and the outside influences served nothing more than to get a better glimpse of the lives of these people. You know, I appreciated those scenes, but now I wish they were part of a different movie.
I stuffed the movie into my computer and edited out all the scenes with Pachino's wife, everything with DeNiro's girlfriend and kept only what was necessary of Kilmer's girl. Then I burnt the movie onto a DVD disc and re-watched it...
And it was amazing. The suspense never lets up, were constantly either thrown into a high-pressure situation or inside the interesting setups for whichever job their working on next. This gave a little more validity to the all-too-short restaurant scene between Pachino and DeNiro.

All in all, if this was edited down to a simpler cop-n-robbers movie it might be one of the most successful ever. Since we're bogged down with Pachino's wife and the young Portman, DeNiro's girlfriend the main focus loses some of the edge that makes it so sharp.
On a side note, watching this again made me wish that Pachino still acted around people lower than his caliber (because he doesn't) and that DeNiro would pick better scripts to work on. I also wish Val Kilmer was still around great projects and Jon Voight would receive the attentions he's deserved his entire career.
So fast-forward through the family scenes and just watch the main plot and I'll bet you life it more.
As is, I give the movie an 8/10. With my editing, at least a nine, most likely a ten.