Could have been much better

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2004)

THE UNTOUCHABLES is an enjoyable movie and I rated it 7/10. Although it lacks character development, it includes enough suspense to keep you involved for nearly two hours. I particularly admired the sequence in the railway station. But there is one thing I cannot understand: It's the fuss everybody makes about the performance of Sean Connery. One former comment stated that Robert de Niro didn't play the role of Al Capone but the role of Robert de Niro. I think de Niro did the best out of the few and short scenes which the script provided for him. But Connery? I would say that Connery played Connery. Or even worse: He played James Bond, disguised as a Chicago cop. Once again the script is to blame: It doesn't give us the slightest hint, why an ordinary cop, who is doing street patrols, should suddenly become the leader of a "gang", which challenges the all-mighty villain Al Capone and his unscrupulous hitmen. Connery's character must be one man with an interesting past, but we don't get any information about it.