Rating: 
Summary: A down-to-the-gut real, exciting, bold cop movie
Review: .
A truly gripping, action-packed and yet really moving cop film with a _raw_ complex plot (no other way to describe it) and some absolutely brilliant performances by Nick Nolte (as Brennan, a puritanical white cop too blurred by his convictions to see the error of his racist, reckless ways), Armand Assante (as a latin drug warlord and the antagonist of Nolte's character) and Timothy Hutton (as Riley, an ex-cop lawyer assigned now by the DA's office to investigate Nolte).This is no LA Confidential or City Hall because there is much lesser of Hollywood here. Instead, expect some in-your-face narrative of police corruption, compromised idealism, racism, even a pithy take on homosexuality. The biggest surprise is the Puertorican druglord character played to the T by Armand Assante, right down to latin American quirks and verbal cadence - easily Oscar nomination material. What's a review without some gripes though, so here. The one thing that befuddles the plot a little is the character of Riley's subplot romantic interest. Lumet's daughter herself played this role and I found her to be more than a little taut. This little apparition of an ex-love will have you wondering about what it means to the story otherwise (clue: not much) especially a reference to Riley being surprised on seeing his latin american girlfriend's father because he was black. Why this was anything special I do not know -- I'd be surprised to have a latin girlfriend for 2 years and then see her father and find out that he was black. If there was some highfalutin racism meme intended, I'd venture to say it fell flat on its foot. Secondly, perhaps some (only some) scenes may be a tad overdone in terms of their dramatic rendering e.g., a totally unnecessary scene with a transvestite prostitute snitching away in front of the druglord or a scene with Nolte dealing with prostitutes and actually groping one of them to determine whether (s)he was a woman. Such needless scenes, and there are preciously few of them thankfully, somewhat bogged down the otherwise perfect pace of the movie. Nonetheless, this is quite an intelligent film with a very real, gripping theme and terrific acting all round. Definitely worth at least a good evening's rental.
Rating:
Summary: VERY UNDERRATED CLASSIC NYC CRIME FILM MUST SEE!!!
Review: Being a nyc hispanic native i know this film is true in its essence. the performances especially by nolte are fabulous. nolte should have at least been nominated for his portrayal of a nyc corrupt cop. if you have lived in nyc this is a film that you should see for its location scences and gritty story. one reviewer wrote what did the main character (hutton) see in her, i can tell you she was smoking hot in the film. i am surprised i have never seen her in anything else and that is a shame.. there is also a touch of humor especially when the evil nolte meets his maker. however the scene between blumenfeld(character) and hutton towards the end about things being buried is very haunting in deed considering the atmosphere that we all live in this society.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts strong and then falls apart.
Review: Francis Aloysius Reilly (Hutton) is a former police-officer, son of a cop, Brooklyn Law grad, and brand spanking new assistant DA. Reilly is assigned to decide whether a grand jury should be convened to investigate the shooting death of a Puerto Rican drug dealer by veteran cop Mike Brennan (Nolte). Brennan is from the old school of NYC law enforcement- a physically powerful, bigoted man who uses his badge and intimidation to pretty much do anything he wants to keep the streets safe from "the animals." Reilly has grown up with stories of Mike Brennan's heroics, and his boss, the DA, pretty much wants the case quickly shuffled away as clear-cut self defense. However, Brennan's legendary cowboy tactics and not even disguised racism makes his claim of self-defense in shooting the drug dealer more than a little fishy. So far so good. "Q & A" has the makings of a taut criminal drama about what it means to be a good cop and what duty do other branches of law enforcement have to reign in cops who skirt around the law. In other movies, cops who bend the rules (or occassionally break them) to protect society have been portrayed as heroes. "Q & A" had the opportunity to really take that myth on and delve into it deeper than films such as "Dirty Harry." However, as Reilly digs deeper into what really happened to the drug dealer, the film starts to unravel. It becomes more and more far-fetched and silly. The movie introduces the mafia, top to bottom corruption throughout law enforcement, assassinations, explosions, a shoot-out in a police department, and other such Hollywood nonsense. I was really disappointed how a film could start off so well and then just completely lose its focus.
Rating: 
Summary: A FAVORITE OF MINE
Review: I thought it to be an exciting police drama about corruption within the force. Excellent performances by most, although what the Timothy Hutton character saw in Nancy Bosch (Jenny Lumet) eludes me. She tells him she once fell out of love with a guy because he wore his socks into bed. Be careful of women like this, I say.
Rating:
Summary: A FAVORITE OF MINE
Review: I thought it to be an exciting police drama about corruption within the force. Excellent performances by most, although what the Timothy Hutton character saw in Nancy Bosch (Jenny Lumet) eludes me. She tells him she once fell out of love with a guy because he wore his socks into bed. Be careful of women like this, I say.
Rating:
Summary: Starts strong and then falls apart.
Review: Like Glengarry Glen Ross, the film itself is average--a typical Lumet film which rails against the system but does nothing to solve it's inherent problems. But it's chock-full of the best character performances of all time, featuring Nick Nolte in an oscar-worthy role of slimy (yet resourceful), racist pig flatfoot Mike Brennan, and also the terribly underrated Armand Assante as Bobby Texador, who steals the film.
Rating:
Summary: Not a classic like Serpico, but still good
Review: Like Glengarry Glen Ross, the film itself is average--a typical Lumet film which rails against the system but does nothing to solve it's inherent problems. But it's chock-full of the best character performances of all time, featuring Nick Nolte in an oscar-worthy role of slimy (yet resourceful), racist pig flatfoot Mike Brennan, and also the terribly underrated Armand Assante as Bobby Texador, who steals the film.
Rating:
Summary: I love this flick!
Review: This is a must-have for anyone seeking a gritty portrait of the shadier slice of life in New York. This movie has it all- corruption in high places, police brutality, institutional racism etc. Nolte turns in a really great performance!
Rating: 
Summary: It would be difficult to underrate this film.
Review: Watching this film is a little like being a spectator at a bad acting competition, with spot prizes for wooden expressions to play for. Jenny Lumet wins both, with extra credit for random overacting, but Timothy Hutton puts up a grand fight for second place. The script is wordy way past the point of tedium: it HAS to be based on a bad play. It's like a very literate writer trying desperately to be authentic, but unwilling to discard a single line he's ever heard in a cop movie. Never mind: you can have a fine time playing 'count the hard-boiled cop cliches'. Cheap special effects, along with a listless score and jarring theme song,reinforce the impression that nobody's heart was in it.
Some distinguished people were associated with the making of this film. I hope they've had a good long think about what they've done.
Rating:
Summary: Props to Edwin Torres
Review: While I agree with some reviewers who felt that this film started off strongly then fell off a bit as it progressed, I have to take issue with a couple of reviews that stated (not verbatim) that the racial politics of NYC as depicted in the film do not accurately reflect real life. One reviewer (the Amazon critic, I believe) went so far as to refer to the race dynamics in Q&A as far-fetched. Wellllll.. as a Latino, raised in the Big Apple but having spent much time up and down the East Coast, I have to respectfully disagree on that one. Granted, Q & A does take liberties with the interpersonal-relationships-as-microcosm-of-the-social-picture thing, but the actors, some of whose performances go waaaay over the top, are more to blame than the story itself . The film is based on a book by Edwin Torres, who also authored After Hours and Carlito's Way, both of which provided the basis for the Al Pacino starrer of the latter name. Torres, who grew up in Spanish Harlem, wrote these books while working as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan. He is now a Judge in Manhattan District Court. Point being that though the general suspicion and distrust among the races might appear to some of us in the 21st century as inaccurate, they are based on Torres' observations of the various peoples in and around Spanish Harlem during the 1960s and 70s, and are actually quite on target. Anyone who has ever found themselves staring down the business end of a police department-issued service pistol during a routine traffic stop can attest to this. And I say this not as a gripe, or as a means of using this forum as an online soapbox, but to state that sometimes, just sometimes, the veracity of a world create for the screen but based on "real life" can only be determined by the subjective views of those who've experienced it, one way or the other. But don't take my word for it, ask a cop, white, black, Latino or whatever else, if race plays a part in how people treat him or her when they answer a call. That said, Q & A does present a bleak, seemingly hopeless picture, but viewers shouldn't fault it for not providing cut-and-dried solutions to our social problems. Instead, watch it as a small slice of life, as experienced by a select few, and glean your own answers.
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