**A good film, with great actors at the highest level, a little different from other action films and that deserves to be revisited these days.**

If there's one thing that can be a good pastime, it's an action movie, with ingenious and fearless thieves and police willing to do anything to arrest them. That's what this movie is, basically, and although we've seen many movies with this recipe, neither does it become tiresome, nor do the movies become boring or less interesting.

Michael Mann is today a director with solid action credits, thanks in part to this film, but also to “The Insider” and “Collateral”. Before this film, he had shown extraordinary competence in directing “Last of the Mohicans”, a film that I consider an example for harmonizing creative freedom, absolute historical rigor and a great respect for the source material. In this film, Mann does not disappoint and once again gives us solid, consistent, committed and creative direction.

For the cast, several great actors with given evidence were called. Of course, it's not possible for everyone to have the same degree of protagonism, but I think that each one of them had the time and material necessary to do a very well done job. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro clearly stand out from the crowd. In addition to having the central characters of the plot, they are both incredibly intense, charismatic, explosive. It's worth watching this duel of the titans. Pacino is the most unlikable and difficult to like because he is constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. De Niro is kinder and more human, so it's not hard to root for him. In addition to them, we have the excellent work of Val Kilmer and Jon Voight, and a well accomplished performance of Tom Sizemore. The film also features appearances by Danny Trejo (almost playing himself) and a teenager named Natalie Portman, among many other well-known names.

Despite everything, this film has little action, many will say. And really, the priority that was given here is the development of the characters and each of their stories, so that the action is more concentrated in some specific sequences like the anthological sequence of the robbery and shooting in the middle of the street. I liked that, and I liked that this movie tried to be different in a positive way. My only criticism is the slow and tiresome pace that the film assumes most of the time. With a slightly faster pace thanks to some surgical cuts, the film would become lighter.

Filmed in Los Angeles, in the city itself (I can only imagine what a logistical nightmare it must have been!), the film couldn't have better sets and costumes, striving for total realism. The special effects work very well, the cinematography is wonderful, and the film is visually very elegant and mature.