I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The 1986 NBC drama 'Crime Story' is often credited as a predecessor to today's greatly serialized TV show such as 'The Sopranos' or 'The Wire', and as the prototype for this kind of series whose story-arcs span multiple episodes. Set in the 1960s it's about policeman Lt. Mike Torello and mobster Ray Luca who rises through the ranks. The first season takes 22 episodes to tell their story, however – being among the first shows to not be completely episodic – it is not as brave in its approach as the shows that would follow it are, and there are a lot of episodic stories weaved into the overarching plot. The show still feels quite episodic because of it, and you can tell that the writers at the time didn't feel the viewers would be able to appreciate a single narrative over the course of about 18 hours. This is especially obvious with the inclusion of season 1 'episode' 12 "Crime Pays", which is nothing but a 45 minute recap of what had happened in the previous 11 episodes. There are other moments later in the show, as it generally declines quite a bit, when there are long flashbacks, too.As far as I'm concerned that's a blemish for the show, as it insults the viewers' intelligence, even though the times and their viewing practices might have warranted that. The show does have a bit going for it, though, other than retrospectively exploring the beginnings of today's great shows' narrative structures. It features some very good acting, especially from Dennis Farina (playing Lt. Mike Torello), and Jon Polito, whose character Phil Bartoli doesn't get enough screen-time, though. A young Julia Roberts has a guest role in one of the episodes, too, as well as Kevin Spacey and other great actors. Also, there's some fantastic work being done behind the camera. Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, King Of New York, The Addiction, …) directs the two episodes spanning pilot and Michael Mann (Heat, The Last of the Mohicans, …) produces the entire series.It's quite evident that this show was made in the 80s, and it feels like the 1980s 90 percent of the time (not only because of the constant anachronistic 1980s score), even though its story takes place in the 1960s, but that doesn't really deter from the production quality of it all. Where the show – at least for me – ultimately falls short of being a great one, though, is in the writing. There's just not enough substance to it. The story definitely has the potential for it, as Michael Scorsese later showed in 'Casino', which was inspired by 'Crime Story', as he himself admitted, but the show doesn't quite live up to it. The episodic elements don't help, but in the end it comes down to the characters not being refined enough. Torello and Luca are interesting enough in the beginning, but character-wise they stay where they are for the rest of the series. They are mainly identified by their hatred for each other, their ambition and their hotheadedness. Unfortunately, there's little beyond that. We get to see them with their significant others and similar things like that, but little is done to further the characters anyway, and in the end there's just too little to care about, especially when the main storyline regularly gets interrupted by often uninspired cases-of-the-week. The dialogue-writing is sharp enough for it to be a decent show, yet sadly the characters aren't fleshed out well-enough. The plot- writing is also not up to par. It often takes the cheap way out and generally lacks credibility and quality. There wasn't nearly enough for it ever to be a great show, but it could have been a good one with a few tweaks. All of this, by the way, is only talking about the first season. The second one is generally another notch below the first one.

I agree with this assessment of Crime Story as I also taped every episode that I could when they were on. My greatest Fathers Day gift from my son was the complete 2 seasons on DVD. Now I have a digital version of this "Best of the best" police shows. We need more great programs along these lines.What was really interesting is that IMDb has complete bios on all the actors involved in the production and I found that the pilot had many current stars cast. As the show progressed, other actors early in their careers showed up from time to time. One in particular is the "deranged gunman" in season one that is currently Captain Brass in Crime Scene Investigation (CSI).

Michael Mann is a first class director. He is laser focused and always delivers in spades. He is the genius who directed the tv film The Jericho Mile and the film noir classic with Jimmy Caan Thief. I think he needs to be given credit for this HE DIRECTED THE FILM THAT IS BETTER THEN SILENCE OF THE LAMBS!!!!He directed Manhunter which was so unjustly overlooked when it was released, but has now on DVD been given the credit it deserves. Mann also directed Heat, The Insider and Ali. Before he did that however, he created the classic tv shows Miami Vice and Crime Story. These are the series that made tv crime shows "grow up" in a sense. It made them more gritty and realistic the way that The Untouchables and Dragnet did. Mike Torello on this show was just as tough and bad ass as Elliot Ness or Joe Friday! I loved the look of this series, it made you feel like you were back in that time where cars had finns, where rock and roll was king and where the good guys wore black! I loved the theme music for the show, it was Del Shannon's "Runaway" I always remember that song. Mike Torello against Ray Luca was almost like a morality play of good versus evil. The scripts were first class, and the actors never gave a performance that didn't rule. Dennis Farina had actually been a cop with Chicago Police Department and it amazes me that a man who never had an acting lesson could give such a fine performance in every show that he has been in! Crime Story wasn't a show for sissies, but it always delivered and kicked ass!

I admit it's redundant to add my review to all these others. Theyare all correct in their various forms of praise for this show. But Ican't help myself. This was just SUCH A GREAT SERIES that Ihave to add my kudos. The cast list is jampacked with stars andstars-to-be. Just click on each of them and see all the terrificentertainment they've given us. Together in this show, withwonderful writing and directing, they eclipsed every crime dramathat has ever appeared on our TV sets, including The Untouchables andMiami Vice. All the cops here were wonderful, but I can't helpsingling out the cast of bad guys. They really drove the show to itsgreatest heights. Among so many of them, I must mention theawesome performances of Anthony John Denison, AndrewDice Clay, Ted Levine and Jay O. Sanders. Each embodied thedarkest evil, and each in his own unique way. Oh, I *SO* wantedthem brought to justice!