Excellent crime thriller.

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2002)

This is a long, involved, and generally superior caper movie, something on the order of "The Asphalt Jungle" but with a cop thrown into the sauce. In addition, as a kind of subplot, we have a duel of wits between Pacino who represents LA's Robbery and Homicide, and DeNiro as the head of the honorable gang betrayed by a renegade member.
The cast on the whole is splendid. Pacino gives a wide-eyed arm-waving, thoroughly enjoyable performance. As his third wife, Diane Venora with her feline eyes is the sensible spouse who feels she is not sharing her husband's life because he doesn't feel she should know about the rottener side of his work. If this sounds a bit familiar, it may be because you've run into this conflict in so many other movies, including "Bullit", "The Godfather," and others. She is the only character who is given lines that make her sound as if she's gone to college -- "What you do is sift through the debris, then pick up the scent and follow it," describing how she views her husband's job.
DeNiro is more restrained, thoughtful, solemn, always seeming to be strangling his passion. His motto: "Never get involved in anything you're not ready to turn your back on and walk out of in thirty seconds flat." Until he meets Amy Brennerman, a pretty young woman who turns in an understated performance filled with nuance. Brenneman looks like -- well, if you like Katy Couric, you'll like Amy Brenneman. Val Kilmer's pinched face has now progressed beyond prettiness and has acquired real character, matched by his acting here.
Two performances are absolute standouts. John Voight as the avuncular source of street information, a kind of Mentor to the gang, is flawless in the role. He has turned into a marvelous character actor. And Ashley Judd as Kilmer's love interest has to be one of our more underused and underrated actresses. She has plump lips, darting dark eyes, and a most mobile face and expressive body, able to convey more with a smile or a gesture than imaginable. She is a magnetic presence in this movie and in some others, so much so that when she is on screen she seems to command it without trying.
All the major characters have domestic problems, including an African-American driver recruited by the gang at the last minute. But these conflicts are secondary to the main thread of this complex plot, which involves two big heists, several shoot-outs in crowded streets, and a couple of murders in between, some of them off screen.
The film is as admirable for what it leaves out as what it includes. There are -- this may be difficult to believe -- there are no slow-motion scenes of violence and not a single car chase. A man trying to escape in a pickup is shot while speeding away. The traditional, moribund thriller/action scenario DEMANDS that this vehicle either blow up like a Claymore or end its earthly existence in a spectacular slow-motion crash. But, no. The director has the truck with the dead man slumped at the wheel slow down and roll to bump gently against a cyclone fence. Yes, folks, it's true. See it for this reason if for no other.