Yay! Movies!

This movie wasn't all that great. It was good to see John Cusack, but something about it made it seem more like a long episode of a tv show than a movie. Al Pacino is the mayor of New York City. Cusack is the deputy mayor. At the beginning, a cop (Eddie) sets up a surprise meeting with a mobster's nephew (Tino). Tino thinks he's meeting his cousin, Vinnie, but Vinnie's really setting him up to meet Eddie the cop. When Tino sees Eddie, Tino pulls a gun and shoots him. Eddie shoots back. Tino's gun goes astray, and he shoots a little boy in the back. Eddie, Tino and the child die.

The rest of the movie is about the investigation. People want to know why the cop was there alone. They also want to know why Tino wasn't in jail. He was on probation, but that's "not kosher" because he was convicted of crimes that should have put him in jail.

Cusack wants to get at the truth about how Tino got probation instead of jail time. Bridget Fonda is an attorney who wants to clear any doubt that the cop did anything wrong. They work together some of the time. Sometimes they're at odds with each other. Although, she might have just gotten mad at him in the diner scene, so she could storm off in a huff and make him pay for her lunch.

There's a lot of politicking and good ol' boy stuff. I can hardly follow that stuff. The good ol' boys speak to each other, but there's a lot unspoken that makes it hard to really understand.

As mayor, Pacino is looking towards the White House in a few years. Cusack wants to help him get there. Pacino tries to do damage control over the child's death. I wanted to like Pacino, but he seemed as slimy as the rest. He was endearing at time, and the Cusack character loved him, but to me it seemed like he was just doing things to help his career.

The speech Pacino gave at the little boy's funeral made me sick. Here's a family in mourning, and he's blabbing about how to make the city a better place. Yet the family and friends all cheer with him like he's the preacher in their church.

One thing that was apparent... Al Pacino is short. Or everyone else in the movie is really tall.

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