Very well executed

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

(Originally reviewed: 13/03/2017) What could have been a serviceable police corruption drama; ended up as a forgettable, clichéd picture with a truly laughably bad last quarter of an hour. The picture is all too familiar with its crooked cops theme, but as well as being fairly predictable until the end, there is a lack of substance; but however there are things I liked and there are some good moments which include Gavin O'Connor's direction's which is fairly decent.Edward Norton (Ray Tierney) play's an honest cop with a bad past; he re-joins the big boy work; as missing persons is allegedly not worth his class, which is said by his father played by Jon Voight, who is higher up in the police chain and has an embarrassingly cringe-worthily sequence where he is drunk at a Christmas family gathering and rambles on spurting some cheesy dialogue and making the other people at the table rather uncomfortable; clearly not a good idea; but the screenwriters thought otherwise; Ray's good friend, also an officer played by Colin Farrell (Jimmy Egan) is the dirty cop and his corruption knows no bounds; which will likely disgust viewers as it did myself seeing him hold an iron to a baby's head; which is crass, over the top and in bad taste. Noah Emmerich (Francis Tierney) is Ray's brother and is also involved in this corruption and though he says he has never talk a dime; he's pretty much part of it, as he's happy to help cover up there debauchery and he overacts rather badly in key scenes; always shouting, and overplaying scenes that do not require such a presence and other corrupt cop's include John Ortiz who play's Ruben Santiago, a cop who at least acknowledges what he has done and is ashamed of it, and isn't too bad but then there's Shea Whigham who plays a similar scumbag to Farrell's character and is not really that compelling and just like the rest of the corrupt officer's, but at least Farrell doesn't embarrass himself in every sequence, just most. Norton; the honest man, gives the best performance, extremely solid with his emotions and calmness and tries to make the story more compelling than it actually is and there are some actresses that are watchable like Lake Bell (Megan Egan) and Jennifer Ehle as Abby Tierney; however not sure why they needed to involve a cancer theme where one of the corrupt officers wives is dying and it uses plenty of melodramatics to try and justify their corruption which was well and truly a desperate tactic on behalf of the writers. There's awful dialogue too, such as Farrell's character trying to act tough and says to a fellow criminal "I'll come back, kill you, f**k your wife and kill the kid; which will have anyone hoping that someone shoots him before he does and there's gritty and unpleasant; this picture has both but more of an unpleasant feel which is one of its many problems. Sure there's some decent dialogue like a quote from Voight who say's "40 years of stuff like this happening, we keep the rage and lose everything else" which went something along those lines, and during the first 45 minutes or so it's decent for the most part, but everything after goes on a downhill slide, which leads me to the horrible conclusion where one cop, kills a clerk because he's broke and when the situation doesn't go as planned, the other cop run's in and shoot's an innocent man and holds the clerk hostage which was so silly and pathetic it had me hoping for the finish.Then Norton's character who finds out what's happened drive's down to the incident, takes a detour to a bar where Farrell is and tells him to drop his gun, an Irish instrumental song comes on, kind of an insult considering the Irish nationals on screen and they start a fist fight that becomes laughably horrendous, and then after cuffing him, they go outside and you have your usual cliché; the thug who's child he threatened earlier has a gang out there, for which you can guess the ending, and it's a stupid, pointless sequence which only made me dislike this picture even more; Pride and Glory is formulaic, the tone and the look may be appropriate but it's constant clichés, unpleasantness and atrocious finale get the better of it's; this is a forgettable police thriller and a bad one at that.

SPOILER ALERT!!! I really wanted to like this and it could have been a really good movie with just a little change in the story. Instead it was completely absurd.20 minutes into this and I already knew that they had way too much going on to ever get around to telling a great story. Too many personal angles: face-shot cop with a past and an ex-wife, another wife with cancer, drunk dad, and bad brother-in-law. Do-able if you're making a TV series and they do it all they time, but a two hour movie just isn't the vehicle for this big of a mess.Too much crying and mourning: Colin Farrel spazzing out at the crime scene (I really hate it when people break stuff to show just how angry they are), wife of dead cop freaking out at the hospital, the junkie ho sobbing through a long scene, cancer mom bawling, dirty cop boo-hooing in the back of a reporter's car, It wasn't clear at all that the guy killed in the bathtub was Tezo. He was only on the screen in one other scene and his face wasn't shown in the tub so when I didn't even realize that Tezo was dead until it was talked about later in the story. It was a bit confusing. And what about the dead guy on the stairs? They didn't even mention that again. They also went way overboard on the killings. It just got too out of hand and unbelievable I felt. After the cop got shot in the bodega he kills an innocent bystander. The typical "Chinese Downhill" ending where if you don't know how to end it you just have everything blow up and go to hell. A fistfight? Completely and utterly ridiculous. And what a completely stupid fight it is.P.S. The title sucks, too. The Pride and the Glory? What is that? It sounds like an adult diaper.

The meltdown of a corruption plot within the NYPD is told through the perspective of one family, in director Gavin O'Connor's severely underrated 'Pride and Glory'. At the heart of it we have Colin Farrell (the corrupt one) and Edward Norton (the straight one), both on the search for a murderer, but both for entirely different reasons.I remember seeing this film at the cinema years ago. I liked it then, but I loved it now. Brilliantly choreographed, really well acted, and a fun storyline that I was always engaged in. I've never seen a bad Edward Norton performance, and he's on top form here. But I think Farrell is the real star. Watch the scene where he threatens to kill a baby. Good stuff.What I like about this movie is that it's not an action thriller. It's a drama about the relationships between the characters. Nothing is black and white in the film, and it works well. I think Jon Voight is wasted a bit in the movie though; his scenes are great, but so few and far between.I don't think this movie has got the praise and accolades it deserves. Perhaps it's not as strong as other police-based dramas, I dunno, but I liked it. A great watch.

Gavin O'Connor's 'Pride and Glory' is a well-made, dark, gritty, urban film that looks into corruption within the police force. Given the title, I was under the impression that this would be just another typical police drama but 'Pride and Glory' is almost noncompromising in its depiction. O'Connor and has crew seem to have gone out of their way to achieve authenticity in their film and they have succeeded for the most parts. The director's sincerity is also apparent as he steers clear from sentimentality.His style of execution (cinematography, art direction, lighting and use of score) is very detailed. In addition, he has extracted some fine performances from his principle cast that includes Jon Voight, Edward Norton, Noah Emmerich and especially Colin Farrell (this is easily one of the best works of his career). The women do not have much to do but Jennifer Ehle stands out. John Ortiz and Frank Grillo lend strong support.Of course 'Pride and Glory' is not without its share of drawbacks. It does risk being a little too Hollywood at times. For example, was it really necessary to have a boxing-wrestling bar-fight sequence near the end? The story too at times loses focus as it occasionally slips towards unnecessary side stories.Yet, 'Pride and Glory' is still effective. It's gripping, brutal, well acted and decently directed.