PRIDE AND GLORY (R)
1 1/2 stars (out of 4)
Four cops are dead, and NYPD officer Ray (Edward Norton), his brother Francis (Noah Emmerich), their brother-in-law Jimmy (Colin Farrell) and their alcoholic dad (Jon Voight) want to know what happened. As the guys get deeper — gasp! shock! — it turns out some of their fellow policemen could be dirty.
The verdict Humorously humorless, “Pride and Glory” doesn’t add anything to the police procedural genre, nor does it even do the same old thing with much spunk or grit. A dying wife and a threatened baby are thrown in for shock value when the story can’t muster its own excitement, perhaps because it tips its hand so early and we spend most of the movie waiting for the other shoe to fall.
Not even Norton can handle dialogue elevated to a laughable degree of faux toughness, and the movie’s so eager to be firm that it goes totally soft, like a hard-boiled egg left in the pot too long.
Did you know? Dad (Voight) raises an interesting question: If every drink you’ve had came out of the same glass, can you claim you’ve only had one?
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rewind Matt’s picks for what’s still playing
Max Payne (PG-13)
2 1/2 stars
Mark Wahlberg needs a nap.
W (PG-13)
2 STARS
Tell us something we don’t know.
What Just Happened (R)
2 stars
Fill in your own punch line.
Sex Drive (PG-13)
1 star
Because who doesn’t love nonstop urine jokes?
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QUICK PICKS
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (G)
3 stars
Who’s in it Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens
What it’s about
Our plucky Wildcats sing their way through the tough choices they have to make as their high school careers come to an end.
Worth watching?
“Like ‘Sex and the City,’ ‘HSM3’ was built almost exclusively for fans of the TV show.”
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
The Changeling (R)
2 stars
Who’s in it Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich
What it’s about
A woman’s son goes missing, and she insists that the boy the LAPD returns to her is an impostor.
Worth watching?
“Next to the moral complexity of [director Clint] Eastwood’s recent films, ‘Changeling’ comes off as a great expenditure of cinematic prowess in service of simplistic drama.”
David Germain, AP
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mpais@tribune.com
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