I’d be really happy if I never had to see another corrupt cop movie playing at the ol’ multiplex. Pride and Glory had a long road before it hit theaters having originally been developed back in the 2000. After passing through several hands, the film finally went into production in 2006 and took another two years before being released. I suppose it was fresh in its early stages, but after a deluge of similar films (The Departed, We Own the Night, Street Kings) and seven years of The Shield the script is beyond stale and tiresome.
Pride and Glory focuses on a family of NYPD cops battling corruption within the department and itself. All the genre archetypes are here. There’s Ed Norton as Ray, the down-and-out cop burdened by a heartbreaking divorce and a shooting scandal. Colin Farrell is his brother-in-law, Jimmy, who has turned his unit into a drug dealing hit squad. He’s a family man, but not above threatening to burn a baby with an iron. We also have the brother caught in the middle and their father, played by Jon Voight because when you need gravitas, get Jon Voight.
The cast does its best to elevate the clichéd material they were forced to work with. After giving a career-best performance in In Bruges, Farrell takes several steps back with a boring tough guy routine highlighted by an amalgamated Boston/New Yorker accent.
Don’t expect any sort of subtlety or suspense. You see everything coming a mile away. The film even throws in a cancer stricken wife to tug at your heart strings. It just comes off as a pathetic attempt to ring out some emotionality from what is an ultimately hollow experience.
Rating: * ½
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