First Hit: A predictable film with very little leading into the storyline along with a few moments of good acting mixed in with some really lousy camera shots.
For a film to have base, something to believe or not believe at the beginning, there needs to be some reason as to why the actors are acting the way they are.
In this film there is no base or basis for the actors to be the way they are. We have no idea why Jimmy Eagan (played by Colin Farrell) and his band of 3 other cops are dealing drugs, robbing stores, and killing people.
There is a poorly constructed reason why his brother in-law, Francis Tierney (played by Noah Emmerich), who is in-charge of Jimmy and his rouge band of cops ignores their bad behavior. Then there is Edward Norton who plays Ray Tierney a cop working in the cold case department.
We eventually learn about why Ray, this bright and upcoming cop, is at a desk job through a couple of forced scenes later on in the film. Lastly there is Jon Voight who plays Ray and Francis’ father who is a high ranking cop and is old school using spin and burying the truth as a way to “fix” the messes cops get in to. Now he wants to do it for his family.
This is a story about crooked cops and the illegal use of their power.
Jon Voight has a couple of good scenes and shows his acting chops. My favorite is the drunken monologue about how wonderful his kids are during a family dinner. Edward Norton always is interesting to watch because of his intellectual intenseness. Colin Farrell can sometimes over act and in this film it felt as if he were pressing. This film was mostly shot with handheld cameras and in some cases this is effective, but there is a fight scene in a bar between Colin and Edward that was simply horrible. The shots created no continuity of the fight and lacked intelligible sequencing. The director was out to lunch on this.
Overall: This was a very poorly constructed film with little intelligence in the story line. It was very predictable and brought nothing new to the screen.