Watch Report to the Commissioner For Free

That was an excellent one.

Brilliant and touching

Admirable film.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A romp thru the 70's. One of my best buddies introduced this 70's detective flick to me - and I really enjoyed it. Not knowing who was in it beyond Michael Moriarity and Yaphet Kotto, it was fun naming the future stars of both the little and big screen in this film. HInt: there are at least 5, not including Moriarity and Kotto.The story line is fairly predictable including the "shocking" ending, but there are some great scenes: crippled beggar hitching a ride on a taxi in Times Square (can you say Michael J Fox in Back to The Future?); face to face "mexican standoff" in an small elevator (Reservoir Dogs redux - without all the F words); roof top chase on foot - except in this case a slow limping white boy catches the slim athletic black guy (not gonna happen) - reminiscent of free running opening scene in Casino Royale.And finally in the predictable "hang the cop out to dry" scene Michael Moriarity implicates himself far better than any interrogator ever could! Pretty hilarious!But, all in all, an enjoyable experience. The more I think about it, this was a ground-breaking movie that predates some of the classics we all love - and introduced some great future stars. So let's give some credit to this 70's epic. DonB

Yeah. You gotta see this film. No, I mean like you gotta. Like now. So go do it, alright? Or else we got nothing', talk about.Yeah, OK, I know, ain't the greatest film going', far from it, fact.But hey, you like them late 60's - early 70's Land Arks they called cars? Everybody does, right? I know I do. Most my buddies do, too. I drove 'em. And you did, too. Huge Chryslers with massive Big-Block 383's with 'Purple Cams'. Awesome Plymouths rigged out with 440 Interceptors, headers, and dead quiet Imperial Mufflers that could stomp any one these dreary green electro-turkeys what they drive today. These cars were big, fast, mean, and required a state the size, Idaho, there, pull a '180 at speed but so what? They were long, comfy, and powerful because they weren't smog motor dogs like them late 70s - early 80s rats, were they? Nor did cars in "Report to the Commissioner" need computer geek tricks to get out of their own way, the way these 'hybrids' that resemble elephant suppositories do today, right? They'd kick the snot out of any four-cylinder phony what thought he was hot stuff, couldn't they? That's why you see 'em, this film, isn't it? You know it.And, hey, you like Industrial Archaeology? Is Urban Exploration your secret passion? You get off, spooking around inside boarded-up factories, power plants, and nut houses? Then you gonna dig this film. Why? Because it was shot during the depressed 70s when Manhattan hit the skids that them Coward-Piven commies greased up for them, special. Decrevalent old buildings with bricks in need of pointing and windows that cried out for glazing were crowned by wooden water tanks that seeped rusty ooze, across whose roofs cops shot it out with thugs.Junkies abounded. They drooled. They yammered. They accosted citizens who took out their aggressions on double-amputees who scurried about on roller-creepers. This in turn whelped to an entire genre of ghoulish Gahan Wilson cartoons.Yaphet Kotto, the son of a Crown Prince of Cameroon - don't take my word for it, go look it up on this site, already, what, I got to do your homework too, crying out loud? - commands this film in which a young Michael Moriarity plays the reluctant detective.And the Precinct House? Oh, you're one these kids, here, thinks 'The Job' is about cops who dress up in sexy leotards, whisper at one another in sterile luxury CSI suites while computers solve their cases?Yeah. Well, think again. Wake up, smell the Kerosene, there, Poochie.Real Precinct houses stunk like B.O., cigar smoke, junkie-sweat, cordite, and stuff ya can't write about here - use your imagination, if video games haven't erased it by now. Cops typed reports on ancient clattering Underwoods, using two fingers to do so, as arrestees who stunk like Hoagies bounced around inside cages next, the cops' desks, and caterwauled like moonstruck werewolves.Dispatchers called cops on real VHF and UHF analog radios, not today's commie-punk '800 megahertz trunked digital' kluges that crash every time some Park Avenue socialite passes gas in the drawing room. From where I lived, Point Judith, Rhode Island, you could hear NYPD calls two hundred miles away. How'd I do that? 'cause my friend John S_____. up the road, Wakefield, was doin' it since Joseph Petrosino walked a beat that's how, and he showed me. You got any more questions? Yeah. You gotta see this film. After readin' this, I think you maybe now understan' a little better how come, right? Am I right?Paul Vincent ZecchinoManasota Key, Florida08 November, 2009

I haven't seen this movie in years, but I would not mind seeing it again. Pretty good, gritty cop movie. Why do I hate the tag line? Because with a tag liner like that, who needs a spoiler? Moriarty's performance is very typical of the period and of his performances during the 1970s (see also "Who'll Stop the Rain"). I'd be curious to see him again because he was unknown to me in 1975, I'd compare his performance to what he's done since. When I think back on that movie, I now imagine it as if a young Gordon Clapp played the lead. Everyone else is memorable, too. Susan Blakely knocked me out--and that was when she was fully dressed. Yaphet Kotto is rightly well-remember for this movie. But I would not want to see this movie remade only because I generally do like to see remakes. They make me feel old.

A not too likable, idealistic young detective is given an assignment which was unnecessary and therefore led to a tragedy and a shakeup in the police hierarchy. The detective, who was totally useless as a policeman, got all wrapped up emotionally with his assignment and acted completely irrationally when confronted with a dangerous situation. I liked the way the film jumped back and forth in time and depicted life in the department and in the inner city realistically. I didn't care for the way a pad happened to be placed conveniently on the rooftop so the jumpers would have a soft landing. Good drama well worth watching.