Pride and Glory is yet another film that milks the all-too-familiar good cop/bad cop cliche. The only thing that sets it apart from others in its genre is the blatant prejudice that comes out of its overt and offensive stereotypes.
When four police officers are found slain in a New York City apartment building after what appears to be a routine drug bust, former Detective Ray Tierney (Edward Norton, The Incredible Hulk) is persuaded by his father (Jon Voight, An American Carol) to leave his current desk job and avenge the deaths of his fellow policeman.
After a few days of investigation, Tierney learns that the man responsible for the murders is a drug dealer named Angel Tezo (Ramon Rodriguez, Surfer, Dude).
Like every recent cop movie, it is obvious that this information is not going to solve the crime. Rather, it simply leads Tierney to discover the predictable, inherent corruption within the NYPD.
The audience quickly learns that the bad cop in this scenario is Tierney's brother-in-law Jimmy (Colin Farrell, In Bruges) who, after being overcome with greed, is forced to defy his duties and abandon any semblance of morality.
Though Farrell isn't the first actor to portray a corrupt cop, he is convincingly evil in his role. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the rest of the cast.
Voight plays up on the Irish alcoholic stereotype and is nothing short of offensive in his blatantly overacted, drunken state.
According to this film, all Irish people are cops and spend their free time guzzling down pints at a local pub called Irish Eyes, where, naturally, they listen to jigs and reels.
The tasteless profiling doesn't end there. Pride and Glory goes on to exploit yet another archaic clich?(c) by portraying all drug dealers as Hispanic.
Despite the film's moments of suspense and gritty violence, it is not enough to save audiences from painful boredom.
Pointless sub-plots and a slow-to-develop storyline cause the film to be drawn out. In addition to this, a lack of originality in the screenplay, written by Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces) and director Gavin O'Connor (Miracle), makes the film better suited as a made-for-TV movie.
It becomes quite obvious that the film does little more than mimic others of its type, such as recent cop dramas We Own the Night and Martin Scorsese's The Departed.
However it's clear that O'Connor is no Scorsese as he fails to take advantage of the film's talented cast.
Pride and Glory proves to be yet another exhibition of wasted star power. Though Norton and Farrell are box-office draws, their appearances in the film aren't enough to save it.
