Stars good, story over-elaborate, bang bang offski

Rating: Null/10 (8 September 2003)

Pacino is one of my favourite actors: De Niro is not, but I was impressed with his performance in this film. I was expecting the usual irritating De Niro "in your face" character seen in too many of his movies, but here, despite the character he plays, his performance is well balanced. The film is tightly directed, but I found the storyline somewhat confusing in parts. One other criticism/question: when will directors resist the temptation to include gratuitous gunfights? This one went on for ages, it was impossible to tell who was killing who, and frankly I didn't give a damn. Perhaps there should be some indication that there will be a ten minute huge gunfight, so those of us watching on television can go and make some tea. Overall I would rate this film as 6.5 to 7.