So this is widely considered a great movie — it is, in fact, part of a zillion-way tie at #169 on the S&S list. (I didn’t realize that when I watched it; I was inspired to watch it by a reference in an episode of Poker Face, and wasn’t intending to just skip ahead a spot on the S&S list.) But it’s one of those “great movies” that just doesn’t speak to me at all — like Sicario or Unforgiven, it believes itself to be all chin-strokey and deep about violence, while ultimately reveling in it simplistically.

Basically the idea is that you’ve got a gang of criminals, led by Robert De Niro; and a bunch of cops, led by Al Pacino. The criminals are trying to do crime things, and the cops are trying to catch the criminals. Ultimately, the criminals are going to do One Last Score, and so obviously things will come to a head.

The emotional center of the movie is a dinner where Pacino and De Niro meet to kinda size each other up, and they have a broment where they realize that they’re not so different after all and actually like each other… but both are like “you know I’ll still murder you, right.” This sort of conflicted violence thing is like catnip for the kind of people who like this kind of movie, but it’s honestly a little hard to take seriously.

The movie has some good points — Mann is a great stylist, and the frequent night-time shots and heavy synths give the movie a particular mood, one distinctive enough to parody in that Poker Face episode. And the family moments are more interesting than the bromance, mostly. But it’s dragged down for me by its fundamental love of violence, and by Pacino’s cheeseball over-the-top acting style (Pacino’s family moments generally don’t work at all, because he’s such a cartoon blowhard that it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to marry him).

It’s not bad, it’s even better than mediocre, but I don’t think it quite rises to the level of good, let alone great.