Special Features:
Three Theatrical Trailers  �  French Soundtrack

FILM
A couple of weekends ago Roger Ebert had Martin Scorsese (my favorite director) on to discuss their ten best films of the 1990's. This film was actually number ten on Scorsese's list. This surprised me a bit. I really do like this film, but it has few weaknesses that in my opinion keep it from being a truly great film.

I am the last person to complain about a long film (two of my favorite films in 1999 were Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia which both ran over two and a half hours long), but this film is about twenty minutes too long. This is mainly due to a couple of subplots. The first extraneous subplot deals with Al Pacino's step daughter played by Natalie Portman. She is haphazardly in the film until the last half an hour when she attempts to kill herself in Al Pacino's hotel room. This subplot could easily have cut ten minutes from the film without losing anything. Another subplot, which only involves two scenes, deals with the fact that the character of Waingro is actually a serial killer. This plot point seems just randomly added. We do get to see Al Pacino sympathetically handle a murder victims relative, but everything we really need to know about his character can be determined from his relationship with his third wife and his sit down with Robert DeNiro's character.

What I most liked about this films characters was their sense of professionalism. Although DeNiro's gang is a group of ruthless criminals, they do their job with a professionalism that you can respect.(This sounds bad, but it is true.) Just think of any athlete, etc. you have ever hated, but still new that they were a great player. 

The opening assault on an armored car is pure movie magic. A perfect plan, perfectly filmed. After this opening sequence the movie settles into a nice character study of both the cop, Al Pacino, and the robber, Robert DeNiro. Each makes many sacrifices in their lives to to be the best at what the do. You can see both of them trying to find more, but also knowing that to stay at the top they cannot have it all. Each scene is nicely developed and all the actors get a chance to show their stuff. 

One of the major highlights of this film is getting to see Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro act together. It is a lot of fun to watch two professionals play off each other. We know by the end of this conversation that in the end one of them will die at the others hand. 

VIDEO
A major disappointment here. This is a beautifully shot film by Dante Spinotti, but the transfer is quite bad at times. The blacks are washed out much of the time, which gives no shadow detail at all. There are also a couple of scenes which are down right awful. The grain levels get so high in the scene where Al Pacino is in the helicopter tracking down Robert DeNiro that you start to wonder if this disc was actually put out by a major studio. For the most part, the disc is watchable, but it should have been a lot better.

AUDIO
The armored car assault and the bank robbery sound really good (as you would expect). You really feel each of he bullets fired, and all of the speakers are used to nicely put you in the middle of the action. The rest of the film is well done, but is nothing spectacular. My biggest laugh came in the final sequence at the airport. For whatever reason the sound designer decided to go all out on the bass levels when the planes fly over. I am not sure how necessary of an effect this was for the film, but my subwoofer got a nice workout.

EXTRAS
The three trailers are interesting, but this film deserves a lot more.

SUMMARY
Although the video is quite disappointing, this is a great film to have in your collection. Top of line action sequences along with some amazing acting make well worth its $19.98 list price.