A serial killer is on the loose in New York, but it is a killer no one truly wants to bring to justice, since the victims are those who, in one way or another, have managed to slip through the long arm of the law. Someone has simply decided that these victims no longer deserve to live and has taken the law into their own hands. At the center of it all stand two seasoned detectives—Turk and Rooster, (Robert De Niro and Al Pacino)—who are unsure how to proceed. They are responsible for the investigation, yet possess such authority, backed by their extensive experience, that they effectively do as they please. This leads to accusations that they themselves may be involved in the murders. Whether these accusations stem from envy is difficult to determine. The hardened veterans, at any rate, take the allegations in stride, even joking about—and at times provoking—their younger colleagues.
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have shared the screen before, most notably in Heat, and one might argue that these two giants alone can elevate a film to new heights. I am not entirely convinced that this is the case, though perhaps there is some truth to it, as it is undeniably these two prominent figures who make this film worth watching. Not that either of them delivers a particularly standout performance—if anything, they seem to be operating on autopilot—but their baseline is still high enough that they easily outperform most others in the industry.
The characters are fairly stereotypical: police officers who have been in the force for many years, hardened veterans who know the routines inside out and who are not afraid to bend the rules. On the other side, we have the younger officers who take issue with their style and are, almost at any cost, determined to bring them down—or at least one of them. They are ambitious and eager to make a name for themselves by solving the case quickly. Unfortunately, they suffer from the same issue as the leading names: they are simply not very interesting. None of the characters have much depth, nor do we learn much about them. We are not given reason to like them, nor to dislike them.
The film’s strength therefore lies in its dialogue, which is often razor-sharp and, despite my earlier remarks about routine performances, delivered with a certain finesse. Personally, I think Al Pacino does a slightly better job than De Niro, but that ultimately comes down to personal taste. On the downside, the film suffers from a rather conventional storyline. It is also not particularly difficult to figure out what is going on with the murders, which is rarely a good sign when this type of surprise is withheld from the audience. Perhaps it was not even meant to be surprising—who knows?
I would therefore describe this as a typical, somewhat mediocre police thriller with a few very big names in the cast. Aside from De Niro and Pacino, we also find Brian Dennehy as their superior, and John Leguizamo as the driving force behind the accusations against the main characters. A rather uninspired story wrapped in a polished package, masked by star power.
