Dog Day Afternoon

An instruction video about how never under any circumstances to proceed during a bank robbery. Al Pacino excels in the main role, demonstrating all typical beginner’s mistakes. Mainly by completely outshining all the others with his performance. Which, in view of how interesting most characters are, is rather a shame; twice as much with respect to Cazale’s role. (07/06/2009)

Al Pacino delivers another one of his incredible performances, directed by Sidney Lumet, who has created a film that can initially be seen as a comedy, but gradually develops into a story that you know cannot end well, even though you find yourself rooting for the anti-hero. Just like everyone else. (09/10/2015)

Pacino turns in a great performance in a heist movie with a banal plot. Or am I, as a viewer, supposed to be thrilled by the twist when a young man in a bathrobe appears on the scene as his wife, for whose sex change Pacino is doing all of this? His real wife and especially his mother just complete the bizarre circle of characters that make this an unintentional comedy. The depiction of Brooklyn and the situation in the US at the time is praiseworthy, but as a human drama, this classic didn't impress me. (14/02/2021)

Nowadays it's flat, but in its day it was a very conscious social satire in an unapologetically attractive take on bank robbery. It's incredible how films have swelled and got incredibly big inwardly over the past few decades. Here, the would-be subtle digressions into gay sexuality and political shenanigans are so blatant and simple in hindsight that it doesn't quite hold the viewer's attention, and when they do it is with a considerable smirk. Sidney Lumet can't be denied a certain authenticity and, more importantly, an effort to make everything fit together perfectly. One thing, however, hasn't changed at all in all that time until today: Al Pacino's acting. (02/12/2015)

One Wednesday morning, Al Pacino woke up as a bank clerk whose world had crumbled apart. He said to himself “screw it” and he decided to rob his place of work and to exchange the money for cigars, rum and a hut made of straw to sleep in in Cuba. He got himself two accomplices: one flees before the action starts and you feel sad about the other one – even more than you feel sad about the movie. After a botched robbery, the two criminals remain closed in the bank along with several employees, the bank is surrounded by about five dozen cops and the social survey of year 1975 starts. And since the movie stars Al Pacino in the leading role, you can bet that you won’t be bored. (17/10/2016)