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Pride and Glory

Overwrought, derivative police procedural

By BRETT MICHEL | October 31, 2008

1.0 Stars

In my time as a critic, I’ve learned a few things. The first is that audiences will not respond well to a dog getting shot. (See — or don’t — Barry Levinson’s What Just Happened.) Now, here comes director Gavin O’Connor (Miracle) to demonstrate that threatening a baby — especially with a hot iron — will never be acceptable. Yet the scene in question is the single original touch and the only one that works in his derivative police procedural. O’Connor and co-writer Joe Carnahan (Narc) sketch an overwrought black-and-white tale of a conflicted family of New York’s blue-and-whites whose members (Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Noah Emmerich, and Jon Voight) run the gamut from good to drunk to corrupt. When O’Connor sets a climactic scene in a convenience store, it proves an all too convenient plot device. I’ve also learned that audiences like to get the facts before spending $10 in these precarious economic climes. You’ve been warned. 125 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + Embassy + Suburbs

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