Serpico (1973)

Swedish and Finnish title:
Serpico: Street Tiger

Director: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Al Pacino, Tony Roberts, John Randolph

Running Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes

Rating: R

Pre-Conceived Notions: The ultimate good cop/bad cop story line: Serpico the good cop against a whole police force of bad cops. To me, this has ‘thriller’ written all over it. Will Frank Serpico prevail by exposing the corruption of the NYPD? I like a movie with questions to answer at the beginning.

Why I Haven't Seen This Film: Because I’m not really into action movies, or cop dramas. Especially old ones. But this whole project is about me trying new things and, who knows. I may end up liking this movie. And it’s based on a true story, so it’s got that going for it.

Trivia: Serpico’s badge number is 716.

2 hours and 9 minutes later…: Wow… that wasn’t as intense as I thought it was going to be. I was expecting at least one scene where all the cops got together to beat him up. Nothing. Although he does eventually get shot in the face. (That wasn’t a spoiler. The movie opens with Seprico on his way to the hospital, and the first words of the film were, and I’m paraphrasing: “It’s Serpico. He’s been shot. In the face.”) 

The movie consisted of a lot of Al Pacino shouting; secret and not-exactly-inconspicuous meetings in cars and parks; and shots of Pacino tackling black guys. Seriously. The majority of the people he chased down were black. Also, Al Pacino shouting. Did I mention that already? I think I did. Wanted to make sure that got in here. 

But what was interesting about the movie was that it examined the nature of corruption. How when it’s ubiquitous, it’s really hard to squash. Even though Serpico was one in only a handful of cops not on the take, within the police force, he was very much the outsider. Serpico’s second girlfirend (he had two, except I don't know if the first one was his girlfriend. They had a bathtub scene together, so I figured they were.) Anyway, Girlfriend #2 told a very interesting story toward the middle of the film: There was a village where a witch had poisoned the local well. All the villagers drank from the well—except the King—and became mad. The villagers wanted to overthrow the unpoisoned King because they thought he had become mad. But then the King decided to drink from the well, and the villagers rejoiced because he regained his reason. I thought that was a fabulous parable, if you ignore the whole, “village that is also a monarchy” thing.

Final Thoughts: I’m going to give Serpico 3 slices of pizza out of 6. It didn’t hold up very well, and you can only take so much of Al Pacino flying off the handle and tackling black guys. But I enjoyed the insight it gave me into the nature of corruption.

Super Troopers (2001 or 2002)

Hungarian title:
Fucking Patrol

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar   
Written by: Black Lizard

Starring: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme

Running Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Rating: R

Pre-Conceived Notions: My first impression from watching the trailer: Police Academy times 10. The film only gets a 35% at Rotten Tomatoes, and the little blurb underneath is as hilarious as the trailer:

“A more-miss-than-hit affair, Super Troopers will most likely appeal to those looking for something more silly.” 

You think? Are you sure the producers and the director of this movie weren’t going for something more deep? Like, were they aiming for the next Attica and totally missed the mark? If that’s the case, it has go down in the annals of Hollywood history as the most unintentionally hilarious failure. My suggestion would be for Broken Lizard to shoot for the next The English Patient. That would be off da chain!

Why I Haven't Seen This Film: This movie was kind of on my radar, but not really. I’ve had a lot of conversations wherein people have come up to me and said, “You should really see Super Troopers, man!” And after mentioning how cool it was that they made their voice go all italics like that, I’d always say, “It sounds like a really funny movie,” and completely forget about it. Until now.

Trivia: Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes have this movie released in 2002, whereas IMDb and Wikipedia say 2001.

1 hour, 43 minutes later… Wow… This is my first review on here, and already I have to eat crow. I can see what the critics meant by “A more-miss-than-hit.” To me, a good comedy is a mix of different things: there should be a blend of wit and gratuitous humor. People who know me may argue that I loved the Naked Gun series, and that was gratuitous humor. And they would be absolutely right. But Naked Gun, and the brilliance of Leslie Nielsen, took its humor and played it straight. There were no signs pointing to the jokes that said, “THESE ARE JOKES. PLEASE LAUGH.” The Zucker brothers had more confidence in the intelligence of their audience. Whereas this movie was the opposite. It was all in-your-face, brutal yet very simple comedy. It was like they were laughing at themselves as they were filming the movie. Comedy that is doubled over and laugh-wheezing at its own jokes falls flat. And then there was Lynda Carter thrown in there for good measure, because Wonder Woman cameo.

Final Thoughts: Maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind for this movie, but everything seemed really really forced. I thought I had an all-encompassing sense of humor, but apparently not. I give this movie 3.5 out of 8 slices of pizza. Good try with the comedy, guys, but I guess I’m too square to have enjoyed any of it.