❤️‍🔥82%
🔙Star Wars: Return of the Jedi🔙 
🔜Flubber🔜 

Serpico!! Long heard about this film for its true story, strong Al Pacino performance and incredible director. It suffers from it being a true story as there’s really not much to the plot other than Serpico going after the corrupt cops and everyone else hating him for it, by no means does it make it a bad movie but it sure dampens it. I do find it crazy this came out in 1973 and we are experiencing much more corruption today than ever before.  

I love Pacino and think this is a solid performance, not his best but damn good. Full of depth and versatility, Serpico is constantly getting beat down by the system but sticks to his moral compass, it’s a powerful and nuanced performance. I love his look here too, from the hair and beard to the elite costume design.. his hat rotation is legendary aswell. 

Fresh off of the Godfather, Al Pacino would go on an insane run throughout the 70s with Serpico, Godfather II, Dog Day Afternoon and Justice For All, all of them earning best actor nominations… insane run! I still think my favorite performance of his is the Tony Montana one, may be time for a Scarface rewatch soon. 

Some charming charisma with this character too, I do wish we got more personal scenes with his love interests but I understand it’s a piece focused on the corruption of police. One of my favorite scenes though was when he’s sat in his garden and he has that conversation with Laurie, showing a bit of personality and his charm. I love the fact he buys that dog when he moves into the new apartment, it’s a genius way to show progression in time. 

This was my first Sidney Lumet film and I’ve been wanting to watch 12 Angry Men for the longest time, I’ll add that to the list of movies to watch this week, so far I’ve got A Space Odyssey and now 12 Angry Men on that list, two potential new favorites. Anyway I really liked Lumets realistic and energetic approach to filmmaking, he makes the most of his favorite New York City streets, and there’s nothing flashy about this movie but it’s just really well directed, with beautiful camera work and methodical blocking/framing. 

I say Lumet makes the most of his New York City and I wasn’t joking. He shot this film at 104 different locations for 107 different speaking parts, what a psychopath. 

I’ll admit the story isn’t crazy progressive, feels kind of stagnant at times, a slow burner and not much goes on besides the cold hard truths of police corruption, but I still found myself interested and intrigued how everything would end. It’s also shot really well and the character driven story keeps things ticking, Pacino does a serious carry job and the supporting cast kind of just exist to progress the story I don’t necessarily care for any one of them besides the love interests of Laurie and Leslie.

That’s quite the contrast from Cop Land, which has a much better character list and a fuller cast. I find Cop Land to be the better of the two movies, and I only mention CL as they are similar in approach, I also enjoy the ending more in CL, but watch both of these movies if you enjoy the crime thriller genre. 

It’s a movie that makes you aware of the fucked up world we live in, run by nothing but power and money. It’s an eye opening piece and I’m back on the Thrilling Crime Time list for a couple weeks whilst also wrapping up the birth-year challenge.. going to have to endure Flubber real soon. 

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