A few thoughts on this film
Amidst all the thugs, scumbags and murderers you have our undercover cop, the good guy, supposedly. But he's conflicted, because he cares deeply about his old friend Jackie, who he hasn't seen for all of his adult life. He just can't help but feel for Jackie, who is a thoroughly despicable character that outside of killing and beating up people and getting pissed does absolutely nothing that can be considered even vaguely redeeming. He inflicted potentially life-threatening injuries on a poor guy who was chatting to his favourite hooker. Terry doesn't seem to mind all that much. Even upon fresh reminders of how awful his old friend is, he still beats himself up over bringing the law or potential harm upon Jackie and the gang. So we understand that not even Terry really values goodness and decency, but rather the friendship is the central thing here. But it just isn't conveyed in a believable or engaging way. Terry has lived almost half his life without seeing Jackie and he first goes back to see him only when sent on a mission that he fully understands the implications of, and yet we're supposed to believe that he's the dearest thing on earth to him?
What I'm saying isn't that a film in order to be good has to tell the story of likeable characters, but if all the key characters are immoral or not quite deserving of my sympathy (as is often the case, naturally, in gangster films), they have to be intriguing and engaging on some other level. What is it that drives them, what do they live for, what are their passions? I find it hard to care about a guy who's portrayed as constantly getting drunk and whose drives and passions in his life as a gangster are completely unexplored. Is it the money? Hardly, they're a bunch of bums. Is it the gangster prestige and honour? Hardly, they're a bunch of bums. So we have this mindless, hollow character as the main preoccupation of our main character. I find that the inner turmoil that should make Terry a somewhat complex character is completely undermined by the nature of the Jackie character. The rest of the characters are mostly one-dimensional thugs, idiots or hysterical. John Turturro's character was smooth and had an interesting beard.
As for Gary Oldman's performance that everyone raves about, I recognize that it is a big (and loud) performance, but I'm not that enthusiastic. I don't know if it's overplayed or if it's the sheer mindlessness and hollowness of the character that annoys me, but it's a routine constisting of hysterical, drunk, drunk, hysterical, yelling, drunk hysterical slob, drunk, drunk, hysterical with a few moments of sad interspersed. It's so cartoonish.
In fewer words: poor characters, little depth, ineffective emotional dynamic.
I've never ranted on the imdb boards before, thought I should try it at least once.