Pride and Glory

You can always tell when its Oscar season. Mofos start pullin' out the big guns. Pride and Glory is a crime drama that definitely comes out blasting in terms of performances. Before I start, just let me say this: sometimes you can see the plot lines Hollywood has for its Oscars. This year, my prediction is that John Voight and his daughter, Angelina Jolie, with BOTH be nominated for Oscars. I missed my screener for The Changeling but everybody I talked to that saw it said that this movie was great and Angelina is going to get an Oscar nomination for this. I rarely hear that from a wide range of people with different tastes in movies, so even though I don't know, I'm just gonna roll with it and predict that shit on the strength. What I do know is that John Voight kicked some major dramatic ass in his performance in this movie. Another Oscar nod will go to Ed Norton. (Does he ever do poorly in a role?) Even though I was unfamiliar with this dude - Noah Emmerich - I can safely say that his career is about to jump off because he was off the hook as well. This movie also pleased people like me who are not huge Colin Ferrell fans. You only had to deal with him in doses. As a matter of fact, this movie didn't have any bad acting in it (even though Colin never seems to be able to shake his accent - and probably never tries to). The performances were top notch.

In case you hadn't figured it out from the trailers, this is basically a movie about police corruption. John Voight is the head of a family of cops - Noah is the oldest brother and the CO, Ed Norton is the "thinker" who's destined to be detective and rise through the ranks like his father did and Colin is...guess...the "bad boy" brother-in-law of the family? Maybe.
The story kicks off with four cops getting iced trying to bust a drug dealer. Noah (Francis Jr.) finds out that all of his buddies got fucked up trying to catch this dude named Angel Tezo. Its there where you learn who is who in the movie. John Voight (Francis Sr.) asks Ed Norton (Ray) to head the task force on the investigation. This uncovers a scandal involving a ring of bad cops who have been murdering for hire and dealing on the side as well as robbing and all of the shit criminals do. This movie serves as a backdrop for the acting. The story line is not new and you can probably predict the ending. With that in mind, I'd have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The acting is on point. Also, this movie touches on something that not every film deals with. There is a nice combination of showing what's going on and how the media interprets it and how the masses perceive it.

To a small degree, this movie is sensitive to the struggles of cops and what they have to go through. What I found kinda funny and cool was that the cops in the movie all had very different looking wives and girlfriends. One cop had an Asian wife, Ed was going through a divorce from the beautiful Camen Ejogo (I know her from The Sally Hemings movie, "Boycott" where she was Coretta Scott King, and from "Lackawanna Blues"). Colin's wife looked Jewish, Noah's wife was white although she had no hair because she had cancer, and John Voight's wife looked Italian. It gave a variance in perception of them.

Now, while I had no real problems with the movie, I thought there was a little bit of miscasting. I'm talking about Rick Gonzalez. He plays one of the higher-up drug dealers in the city; I think he was Angel Tezo's rival. I'm sorry but Ben from Reaper ain't runnin' SHIT! While I think dude is a pretty good actor (rent/download "Illegal Tender", its a damn good flick), there's nobody that can convince me that this pretty mutha fucka is a boss on the streets. It would be like if Prince had actually taken the role he was offered in Michael Jackson's "Bad" video as the tough gang leader. I just wasn't buying it. "Who's bad?" Not this skinny ass nuggaha! His performance was cool and its good to see homeboy workin' but...really. That mutha fucka would be a jailhouse bitch. No way any real street niggas would let El DeBarge Jr. run shit on the streets.
Speaking of pussies, gawd damn, gawd damn! Keep your eyes open for this chick named Raquel Jordan! In this flick, she plays The strung out girlfriend of Angel Tezo (played by Ramon Rodriguez). Man, if there was ever a campaign for heroin or crack addict pussy, she would be the poster child! Even though most of the time she looked ravaged from abuse and drug use, she was still bangin'! You know I have to mention the dimes in the movie! Remember when I told y'all to watch for Debra Nascimento in the Hulk? Aight, then.

While this is not the best movie I've seen this year or anything like that, I have to say the acting is good. Its character-driven, so the people are more important than the story. Ed acted his ass off in this as did John Voight. The performances were damn good all around. The story has been done. The cinematography is very blue . The whole movie has a blue tint to it. Blue = cops? Maybe. Don't know, don't care. It looked pretty cool.
Now this joint is long. The movie had to be about 2 1/2 hours. If you've got to piss, don't try to hold out till the end of the movie. I heard that the Angelina flick, "The Changeling" was long like that, too. Tis the season and Oscars are the reason.
I say fuck with this if you like crime dramas or Ed Norton. While there is some action it in, it is not an action flick. Cops will like this flick. There's not much nudity. I think Raquel Jordan showed some flesh but it was so quick I don't remember. This is not one for the family. There is nothing for kids in this movie and there's a particular scene with a baby and an iron that's rather disturbing. It would probably shake a child up.
Matinee this mutha fucka or wait for the DVD. Its really a good joint to watch at the house with some friends. That way you can pause this shit when you need to pee.
Peace.