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Very well executed

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

***SPOILERS*** We the audience right away see that Pôrto Rican drug pusher Tony Vasquez's death was anything but justifiable in him getting his brains blown out by "hero cop" detective Let. Michael Brennan, Nick Nolte, at the very start of the film. It's now up to Brennan's good friend and head of the NYPD homicide department Kevin Quinn, Patrick O'Neal, to cover up Vasquez's murder and make it look like self defense on Det. Brennan's part.In order to whitewash the investigation in Vasquez's death Quinn gets Assistant District Atterony Aloysius-or Al for short-Francis Reilly, Thimothy Hutton, to take the case to the grand jury and do everything he can to get it squashed. Reilly being the good soldier, or former cop, that he is at first does everything to make sure that Bremnnan gets off. That's until a star witness in the Vasquez case his friend and former street gang buddy Roberto "Bobby Tex" Texador, Armand Assante, shows up at a pre-grand jury hearing together with his newlywed wife, whom he lived together with for some five years, the former Nancy Bosch, Lenny Lumet. It so happens that Mrs. Nancy Texador was Reilly's fiancée who dropped him like a hot potato when he flipped out when he was introduced to her father who just happened to be black! Reilly who was all business in handling the Vasquez murder case suddenly lost his cool and professionalism which soon lead to him having doubts to if "hero cop" Michael Brennan was as innocent of Vasquez's murder as his boss homicide chief Kevin Quinn said he was!Big city police and political corruption at its worst is depicted in the movie "Q & A" in grand style with almost everybody in it, police criminals and members of the city's Criminal Justic Department, ending up dirty in one way or another. Let. Brennan who likes to do things his way in creaking heads and breaking arms & legs, with a little murdering on the side, is up to his neck in what Bobby Tex and his gang of drug pushers are up to. It was in fact Tex who got the goods on not only Let. Brennan but a very high up member in the NYPD in their involvement in a murder some 25 years ago while they were, as teenagers, working for Tex's street gang as hit men in Spanish Harlem. It's now up to Let. Brennan, on orders from higher ups, to eliminate in every way possible the remanding members of Bobby Tex's street gang, together with Tex himself, in order to keep them from bringing out his and others in the NYPD participation in that 25 year old unsolved murder case! With one of the Tex gang members being the now gunned down Tony Vasquez!***SPOILERS*** Reilly soon finds out just how dirty Let. Beannan is and that leads to his life and career in the D.A's office being put on the chopping block! Brennan for his part does everything to discourage Reilly from continuing his investigation of Vasquez's murder short of murdering Reilly himself. The movie get somewhat ridicules when Brennan goes out of his way in murdering a number of witnesses who can put him behind bars including a couple of transvestites who's only crime seems to be that they know of the macho cop Brennan's secret life as a closet gay! Which Let. Brennan wants to keep secret from his friends in the NYPD who just think, in his macho and manly mystique, the world of him!With the now totally out of control Brennan on the loose, in both NYC and San Juan Pôrto Rico, murdering everyone he feels can finger him in his criminal, which includes the murder of Tony Vasquez, activities even those who were determined to get him off the hook now see that he has to be stopped and stopped for good unless, like he himself threatened, he exposes their skeletons, or dead bodies, in their closet as well! Brennan is finally tracked down in of all places his own New York City police precinct the two three, or 23rd, where he's finally gunned down by rookie cop Alfonso Segal, Gustavo Brens, when his good friend and former partner, who ended up getting shot by Brennan, Det. Sam Chappie Chapman, Charles S, Dutton, couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger on him!In the end a wiser and older as well as busted up Assistant District Attorney Al Reilly finally saw the light in that corruption in the NYPD, going back to as far as 1791, is here to stay and there's nothing that he or anybody else can do to stop it. Taking a long vacation from his job we last see Al Reilly sunning himself on an island in the far off Caribbean with his former, and back again, lover Nancy Bosch at his side.

The one thing Q & A has going for it the entire time is in the form of its atmosphere; it's utterly, utterly effective atmosphere that is very much present due to one thing: we know exactly what the character of Brennan (Nolte) has done but Reilly (Hutton), who is supposed to find out exactly what the situation is, doesn't. This is an interesting idea and a bit of a spin to put on the pretty bog-standard situation of your standard, 1980s to early 1990s internal affairs cop thriller. What works is that we, the audience, have a position of power that the characters in the film do not; thus the hero (Reilly) has to work things out but we don't, however we will be with him all the way to see if he is able to crack it. Alternatively, what the audience do know is exactly what Brennan knows which perhaps lures the audience into false identification.I think director Lumet, who is certainly well accomplished; most definitely by the time this was made, wanted to make a bit of a noir out of this idea. He shoots the film in such a way that has the hero go on his own personal quest of discovery, even if that discovery is one he might not even want to discover given the truth behind it; Lumet also injects several different types of characters into the story: the hard bodied cop in Brennan who is harder than the hero himself (an interesting spin on things); a South American drug baron and his bodyguards; an old flame who is somehow connected to the baron; a homosexual singer/performer and some allies to the upstanding hero, two of whom are 'Chappie' Chapman (Dutton) and Luis Valentin (Guzmán). Q & A works as a noir-come-internal affairs crime story because it combines things we're familiar with but injects them with, arguably, an auteur's own personal approach. Reilly as a hero seems venerable but smart given his history with the female character now connected with the drug baron and the script consistently pumps out quality one-liners, the majority of which are spouted by Brennan.Adding to the noir pointers, it rains a lot in the film but it's significant as to when it rains. Reilly's reunification in the car with his old flame happens after the baron has threatened him to stay away from her thus creating tension; he has done something he shouldn't have after someone of a superior rank has told him not to. But the meeting in the car, although very well placed given the inclusion of the rain, allows us to see deeper into the past of said couple's relationship. It turns out the flame mistook (or perhaps she didn't) a look Reilly gave her father upon seeing he was black, something that obviously points to bigotry. But then again, the film is racist without ever really demeaning any race, religion or ethnic group. Certainly, the level of racism in the dialogue is rather high but when one of Reilly's friend's is in the bar telling him how much of a 'great man' the chief of homicide is, the element of hate is built up through the script and our opinions of a character alternate without him even being on screen. It's also worth saying that when you have a film which contains a character both black and homosexual, one of which is also physically weak the majority of people will have a field day going up in arms over it; but I felt the film steered away from any sort of stereotyping and thus does its best to create a realistic character without any aim to offend. It's worth saying here that director Lumet directed 12 Angry Men, a film that was all about fighting for what's right whether black, Spanish-American or whatever.So Q & A is a courtroom drama set outside the court; a noir that it in colour and made in the 1990s; your not so average, everyday cop thriller from the 1980s-90s and your entertaining, compelling detective novel stretched across 130 minutes complete with colourful characters, hate, love, regret and humorous one-liners and insults. Brennon is perhaps the star but given the audience know exactly what he knows throughout several of the scenes, it's almost as if he's the star. Yes, he's mean and spiteful; yes, he intimidates and goes below the belt but if anything, I read people saying: 'watch it for Nolte'. Good call, he's almost the hero given what we know and Reilly doesn't but that's the apparent genius of Q & A: you have your detective cordon, your love cordon and your hard bodied bully cordon. I could recommend Q & A for a number of things, including a re-watch just to clarify a few things but do not let a complicated plot at all put you off seeing it.

This movie does OK overall. It held it's own as a crime drama. It kept a strong storyline going with good acting from the leads as well as some good support. Dialogue was sometimes very good while at other times hollow and cookie-cutter. 2 things drag down the movie a bit, first a poor theme song and score in general - dated in a bad way - why is feel good pop in what should be a crime drama? This yet again is an instance where music becomes an irritating distraction to the movie, and why it's so important to pay attention to it when editing, but perhaps being 1990 is what it is. Secondly the relationship of the lead and his ex-girlfriend. That whole explanation was in general stupid and unbelievable - with a pretty bad ending, And moreover the issue with racism the movie makes especially with dialogue is poor - a lot of characters are either ignorant or bigots 1 dimensionally. There is quite a lot of profanity - maybe too much. The crime scenes are OK, and the story unfolds pretty well. On the strength of story and acting alone, worth a look, but just missed being excellent due to it's problems.

Exellent police thriller, about corrupt cop Nolte, who finally meets someone, Hutton, who's determined to bring him to justice! Film is good all the way, with Assante in good supporting role. Why this actor hasn't had greater sucses, is a mystery to me. Calderon is also good as transvestite! But Nolte, is absolutely brilliant as the arrogant, super corrupt Mike Brennan! Is one of my favourite police thrillers from the 90'ies. The only downpoint is the silly song used for the end credits, "don't betray the ones you love", of course you don't!Peter Piessens