Long and Complicated

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

PRIDE AND GLORY is a police drama with problems, and one of its biggest problems is that it looks like too many other police dramas that we have already seen.

This could be the reason why it was released more than two years after it finished shooting and its release date has been postponed more than once.

On the other hand, it has a strong cast and it looks authentic, probably because director Gavin O’Connor and his brother Gregory, who are sons of a New York City cop, wrote the story together.

Colin Farrell plays Sgt. Jimmy Egan, and he has married into a police family. His brother-in-law, Ray Tierney, is played by Edward Norton, and his father-in-law, Frank Tierney, Sr., who is the chief of detectives in Manhattan, is played by Jon Voight.

Frank has another son, Frank Jr., who is the precinct captain of the station house where Jimmy works.

The story begins with the killing of four police officers in an apartment building, and the severity of the situation is such that only trustworthy cops are wanted to investigate it. All four officers worked in the station house with Jimmy, and one was Ray’s friend and former partner.

So, Frank Sr. asks Ray to be on the task force, telling him, “Raymond, do me a favor. Forget the past.”

You see, Ray has been off the streets for the last two years working in Missing Persons, whereas the previous eight years he had worked on the Major Case Squad before something happened when Ray got shot in the face, and he has the ugly scar to prove it.

Early on, the audience learns that Jimmy was somehow involved in the death of the four policemen, and a lot of cash also figures in the situation.

The story takes place at Christmastime, and we see a lot of family get-togethers with wives and children, but gritty police work is the emphasis of the film. That and the rough language that apparently goes along with it.

Even though Frank Sr. tells Ray to check in with him if Ray gets anything, Ray ignores that directive when Ray is informed that a policeman was involved in both the original killings and in another shoot-out later on.

Then Ray finds trouble.

PRIDE AND GLORY is too long and complicated.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”