The unfortunate thing about Pride and Glory is that it takes a serious storyline about Police corruption to such an extreme that it almost becomes unbelievable. The rogue cops have gotten so far out of line that the department's Internal Affairs Bureau, loyalty and honor among the officers themselves and other systems that are or should be in place, can no longer deal with the out of line cops. 

The first 45 minutes of the movie are slow, accumulating the information you need to make sense of the movie. In fact, there are times where you are so involved in several different subplots that when it comes time to tie one thing to another you end up confused. I had to run through my head more than once, the familial relationships between the central characters.

The plot is simple, a father, his daughter and two sons find themselves dragged into the dealings of a police squad filled with dirty cops that shake down low life drug dealers, rob innocent shop owners, plant evidence, murder uncooperative thugs and are led by the daughter's husband. The father and two sons are cops that have been in  similar circumstances before and "stood by their own." Will they once again lie under oath, this time to protect a family member (the brother in law), or will they stand up with honor and do the right thing?

As pointed out in the first paragraph, things are so out of control that much of the movie is hard to believe. That is, hard to believe if the news wasn't all too often filled with stories about good cops gone bad. Right here in Florida we had the Delta Force, an elite group of law enforcement officers that were supposed to rid the streets of drugs and instead were planting drugs and weapons in innocent peoples homes and cars to cover their own tracks as well as the tracks of the people they were taking bribes from. Testimony in trials included stories of frightening beatings that came close to torture. Even after the five cops were brought to trial, more cops, including the County Sherriff, sought revenge on the U.S. Attorneys that prosecuted the rogue cops. (Sources 1, 2, 3) This storyline is unfortunately all too real.

Edward Norton's characters in Fight Club, American History X and even The Incredible Hulk required an actor that comes across as a little pompous and full of himself. In this regard, Norton's portrayal in Pride and Glory of Ray Tierney was completely off the mark. There were times when Ray's character seemed aloof, above it all, as if he were leading his family to do the right thing not because it's right, but because this is really all about his own glorification.

Colin Farrell (as Jimmy Egan) puts in a decent performance as the rogue cop brother-in-law, but in several scenes he's hard to take serious. Is he the good family guy or is he a bad ass that wants to burn the face off of an infant with an iron? There were audible laughs in a couple of scenes where their should have been gasps. His character had way too much Jekyll and Hyde and Farrell's performance did nothing to make it seem more real. Jimmy could have at least been a little out of line with his wife or kids once.

The bottom line is this, the only reason you believe in the story is because you've heard and read unbelievable accounts of police corruption and brutality in the news. The writing, the acting and the slow paced build up to the action do nothing in and of themselves to make you believe that this story is real. Unfortunately that's where Pride and Glory fails and while we recommend the movie, don't go thinking this is exceptional.