This movie trashes all of the cliches about cops n' robbers

Rating: 10/10 (11 May 2000)

Perfect. Every aspect of this film was perfect, from the acting, to the cinematography to the story line. It was excellent to see Pacino and De Niro, perhaps the two greatest actors in the history of crime-genre movies, finally appear as nemeses. The fact that they didn't appear on screen together for most of the movie was also a great buildup to the diner scene. Fabulous character study between the two--it trashes the usually superficial emotive tendency to cheer for the "good guy" and hate the "bad guy." Like De Niro's character asks, "What is normal?" Who is the good guy? Who is the bad guy? Above all, I loved the viscerality--each of these guys is in it for the thrill, not for money or convictions. Not so for the lesser characters in the film, but this, too, feels appropriate, and throughout the movie, I felt a hair's breadth away from each character's id. The cinematography was also amazing. The gun battle in the street early on in the movie was the most gripping scene I've ever experienced, and the diner scene is also one for the ages--nothing on the screen except for two great egos matched up against each other for the thrill of the fight.