Here we are, sitting down to review Bryan Bishop's newest blockbuster hopeful, "Dick Tracy: The Broken Cross". 

Plot: Picking up a bit after the original film, the city is now safe from Big Boy Caprice and his boys, but a new evil lurks in the darkness. The town is thrown into turmoil at the arrival of the German madman, Pruneface (Arnold Schwarzenegger), providing a spearhead for the Germans to invade the States. Backing up Pruneface is The Brow (Bruce Campbell), an ex-doctor who fell from grace due to his love for two prostitutes, who goes from a depressed sad sack to a cocky and slightly sadistic spy. Villains aside, we are reintroduced to Dick Tracy (Tom Hanks), our favorite yellow-fedora-wearing detective, who's celebrating the anniversary of his engagement to his sweetheart, Tess Trueheart (Julianne Moore), as well as trying to keep B-B Eyes (Joe Pesci), a tire magnate and short-tempered gangster, off his back. Not soon after, Tracy runs across a young vagrant only know as "The Kid" (Liam Aiken), who quickly attaches to Tracy, especially after the flatfooted gumshoe beats up his hulking, abusive guardian, Steve The Tramp (Ron Perlman). It should be noted that from this point on Dick Tracy spends pretty much the entire film either bleeding and bruised or in casts and slings. Now our two stories start to merge, as The Brow, now a full-fledged spy, uses two prostitutes, The Summer Sisters (The Olsen Twins), to acquire maps of the city's harbor. This is where The Brow really shines, using an unique method of torture to get what he wants. And this only covers the first 20 or so pages. A great original plot with rich and interesting characters the whole way. 

10/10

 Characters: Like I said, the characters in this sequel are great. The stand-outs are without a doubt the villains. Pruneface, while not as great as his predecessor (Flattop Jones), is a brutal and ruthless bastard. With his disfigured visage, Pruneface terrorizes everyone in the film, whether it be Dick Tracy, the public, or even his own allies. Following him up is The Brow, who's a cocky son-of-a-bitch when he's in control, and sometimes even when he isn't. B-B Eyes wants Dick Tracy, after he killed his brother, and he'll do it anyway he can, even if it means tearing apart everything between them with a tommy gun. And finally, "Black" Pearl Erad (Judi Dench), the stone-faced head of the Blue Oyster Cigarette company, and a contributor to Pruneface's greater scheme.  Then we have the good guys, Dick Tracy is the defender of freedom, and just because he avenged Emil's death by bringing down Big Boy, it doesn't mean he's done by a long shot. Instead of battling gangsters, this time, Tracy is at war with Germany itself. Accompanying him is his partner, Pat Patton (Brendan Gleeson), who believes that Tracy is going to dig himself an early grave, and thus spends a large chunk of the movie looking after Tess. Sam Catchum (Sean Astin) joins up as a young Irish cop, walking his beat around the whorehouses of the town, becoming a valuable ally to Tracy in the end. Then there's Judge Jim Herrod (Tommy Lee Jones), who's a legendary hero of the town, before Tracy, who provides Tracy with some inspiration and helping him make the final swing on his character arc. 

9/10 (This loses a point due to feeling that Herrod's character was a bit cliched with his final bit) 

Cast: A great cast here, with Hanks, Moore, Gleeson, and James Cromwell returning in great shape. Then we throw in Sean Astin as Sam Catchum, in what will surely be a returning role for Crescendo. Then we throw some great villain performances for The Govenator and Joe Pesci. Even the Olsen twins were great choices for The Summer Sisters. And finally, Bruce Campbell as The Brow makes up about one of my favorite movie villains of all time. Bryan managed to write a character that I could easily see The Chin play, and play it well. If these films were ever picked up for the big screen, it'd be a crying shame if they used anyone but Campbell as The Brow. He has a great and patriotic death, that has to be seen to be believed, taken straight from the strip. 10/10 Pacing: For a 120 page script, Tracy 2 moves incredibly fast. Bishop manages to give you just enough information through dialogue, then hammers you with some great action sequences. The beginning drags a bit though, but once you hit the later half of the script, it really kicks it up a notch and doesn't slow down, leading to a great ending. 

10/10

 Final Thoughts: All in all, another great Dick Tracy film and another great Bishop film. And as the credits reveal, this isn't over for Tracy yet, not by a long shot. 

90/100

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J GRAHAM Reviews DICK TRACY: THE BROKEN CROSS

WARNING: Spoilers inside

Like most Bryan Bishop's films, 'Dick Tracy: The Broken Cross' has received something akin to a monster of an ad campaign, with slick posters, slick ads, and endless backing from the studio involved (as evident by the phenomenal cast). However, when boiling offs the hype, and looking at the film itself, it's difficult to understand why exactly Bryan has become the monster producer he is. Sure, this film will rake in the dough, the cast itself assures that, but why are people looking at this as the biggest summer film of the year?

I didn't read the original 'Dick Tracy,' not from top to bottom anyways. I did get through a decent chunk of it, and found that Bryan had fashioned an enjoyable little ditty of a crime drama, that lived up to the comic strips, thought it didn't quite excel in comparison. However, like the title at the end of the closing credits, which proclaims that the yellow clad detective will be back in "DICK TRACY: CRESCENDO," I couldn't help but feel that Bryan himself got a little too sucked into the hype, and walked down the ill advised path that the Wachowskis did. He made too big a film for its own good. Inside this film's four hour running time, there's a good movie. Somewhere. But it's concealed within the ridiculous (and often exhausting) gun battles, fisticuffs, mutilations, cracked heads and blood, blood, blood. The film is the producer's orgasmic ode to pulp detective noirs and violent, brainless action films. This is all the more heartbreaking when you consider that 'Broken Cross' could've been a lot more than the soulless action film that it is.

The film drops us in the middle of a hyper violent day in the life of Dick Tracy. Struggling to balance his personal and professional life, Tracy is unable to commit himself to Tess Trueheart, the woman he would (according to the last film anyway) do anything for. However, Tracy has to race to stop a labyrinthine conspiracy that involves a giant, mean, crazy SOB Nazi named Pruneface (Schwarzenegger camping it up in a role that he would never play) who is planning to deliver 'The Broken Cross,' a secret Nazi project that would allow them to invade America's heartland. At the same time, a maniacal doctor fallen from grace, named The Brow for his deformed appearance, is running about town, and a diminutive gangster named BB Eyes wants Tracy dead for shooting his brother. In addition, a young, unnamed kid finds his way into Tracy's confidence, and essentially is a diminutive version of the great detective himself.

The film's essentially a helluva lot longer than it should have been. I was forcing myself to get through the script as time and time again the villains escaped from Tracy's grasp, new villains joined their cause, and twists and turns came about. But none of it was particularly compelling. The film is also aggressively, and often sickeningly, patriotic. The key to a good film is to be as subtle concerning your themes as possible, and apparently Bishop never understood, or doesn't care about that. Take the final sequence involving The Brow. You're probably going to stand up and salute the flag, if you hadn't been pummeled with lines like this: ("I'm a thug. But I'm an AMERICAN thug.") and treated to a diminutive police force wiping out an ENTIRE EUROPEAN BATTALION. Like I said, the film gets way too big for its own good.

The single worst part is that the film throws character to the wind after the promising, breathless first thirty to forty pages. The film is at its best here, as we get heady doses of violence with liberal addition of character development. In addition we get probably the greatest introduction of a villain in history, you'll know it when you experience it. But after this point, when Tracy is sidelines to a hospital bed, the film begins to lose ground, fast. The rest of the story is stretched across interminably long and often pointless action sequences that do not further the plot, or deepen the character. Most of them take place so as to get Tracy out of yet another sticky situation, and serve to show how much of a badass he is.

None of the other characters are particularly compelling either. Pruneface is probably the ultimate badass, but you only need to show us that so many times. The Brow is an enjoyable, entertaining diversion, but not a strong enough villain to portray any real menace. Tracy himself is incredibly cardboard, shedding blood while telling Tess how much he loves her, while never really demonstrating it. As for Tess herself, Julianne Moore has the most thankless role in filmdom. She's a caterwauling, loose pain in the ass that becomes more of a nuisance than anything else, as she goes through her horribly protracted character arc, which is swiftly inundated by the film's closing.

'Dick Tracy: The Broken Cross' isn't a BAD film. However, it's a good film in the same way that 'The Rock' was a good film. It's stupid, pointless, vacuous and filled with holes, but its decent entertainment while it lasts.

60/100

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LUCKYMONKEY Reviews DICK TRACY: THE BROKEN CROSS

There is a common misconception as to the landscape of comics and their characters in the 1930’s. We look to strips like Little Orphan Annie, Krazy Kat, Popeye or Lil Abner and the humor there is fun, nonsensical and wholesome. This was in stark contrast to what Americans were going through in the era of the Great Depression, and these daily strips provided a much needed respite from the bleak world in which their readers lived. Dick Tracy, however, was both a detective mystery and a soap opera serial that starred a plainclothes detective who brought the harshness of the city streets to life in bright, seven-color glory. His determination, incorruptible honesty, and willingness to use excessive violence were unlike anything that had ever been seen before in comics. This installment of the Dick Tracy film series stays true to the unflinching nature of the comics, to great effect.

Tom Hanks tackles the role of legendary detective Dick Tracy with unabashed determination. His ability to have emotions run deep, and then visibly boil to the surface makes for a serious and compelling character study in the midst of an action film. Reminiscent at times of his work in Road to Perdition, Hanks makes Tracy his own and in the process, breaths new life into a character that was created in 1931.

The film revolves around a Nazi plot to land troops on American soil through the detonation of a devastating weapon known as The Broken Cross. The plot gets long and convoluted during the two hours, but it never drags. In fact, there is so much action and so many characters you’ll find yourself wanting to see the film again to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Fortunately, as with the comics, a good Dick Tracy story doesn’t really depend on an intricate plot. And while it has a few too many instances of any number of the numerous bad guys slinking away just before the cops arrive, the story makes for a fine setting for Tracy battling his rouges gallery.

And what a gallery it is! The Dick Tracy comic strip became famous for more than its unflinching use of gunplay. Its villains were well-known for their colorful names and bizarre deformities. They were these grotesque people, doomed by nature to wear their souls on their faces. One of the great joys of any Dick Tracy film is trying to spot who is who beneath the Chester Gould inspired make-up. From the very first city scene, the parade of now-deformed stars begins with the Brow lurking in the shadows. Played throughout the film with his usual aplomb, Bruce Campbell shines in the role as he transitions from a lonely, pathetic stalker of prostitutes to a hardened, sadistic criminal. Other villainous performances of note are Joe Pesci turning in a usual wise-guy turn as B-B Eyes and Arnold Schwarzenegger as a sun-scarred, Nazi enforcer known as Pruneface. It’s good to see the Governator back in a darker role that uses his natural size and accent to full effect.

There are a host of less important villains that breeze through the films, and in the tradition of the comics, the vast majority of these criminals will appear only once in the series. That’s because when Tracy gets involved in a case, he is as likely to kill the crook as arrest them. In the comics, Tracy was always an enigma, a figure without emotion or complexity. In The Broken Cross, his singular dedication to doing right is what provides the ups and downs between him and those around him.

His relationship with Tess Truheart (a role Julianne Moore was born to play) is on the rocks because of it. His attitude towards his partner Pat Patton (Brendan Gleeson) is tainted by it. His respect and admiration for Judge Jim Herrod (Tommy Lee Jones) is a reflection of it. Tracy gets beaten, shot, smashed, hammered and drug through the mud in every way possible in his dogged pursuit of justice. Unfortunately for those around him, he takes them along on the journey, or pushes them aside if they get in his way. But beneath his seemingly uncaring exterior lies the truth of the matter. Tracy has always been a tough cop, but an absolutely honest one. He is compassionate toward the innocent and helpless, as is shown in his relationship with the Kid (Liam Aiken) and his immediate liking of the freckled-faced, outgoing Sam Catchem, played wonderfully by Sean Astin in a role we expect to see a lot more of.

Tim Burton paints the world with a massive, primary color soaked paintbrush. The city is stark and bleak, making the vibrant colors of the characters pop even more. The vibrant colors of the costumes stand out in stark contrast to the dark city and its troubled inhabitants. The trademark, sunshine yellow hat and coat of Tracy himself are a mask for the brooding, obsessive man that wears it. From Tracy’s yellow hat and coat to Tess’ red hair and dress to the velvet green suit of the Brow to the blue pinstriped suit and bowler hat on B-B eyes, Burton makes the most of the seven primary colors inspired by the comics from where these larger than life characters came.

Dick Tracy: The Broken Cross is a fun, fast-paced film that stays close to its roots. As with the highly-stylized Sin City, the comic book detective genre is well served by this endeavor, although you’ll want to leave the kiddies home for this one.

FINAL VERDICT: 83/100

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PEDRO Reviews DICK TRACY: THE BROKEN CROSS

Dick Tracy: The Broken Cross is Bishop’s latest film here at HTG. This is really actually a first here at HTG and something that not too many RL films accomplish either, a sequel that is better than the original. This also happens to be the best film here at HTG thus far.

PLOT: The plot is the standard man trying to take over America. This time though it is more interesting as the man trying to take over the world is known as Pruneface (Arnold Swartzenegger). Pruneface’s face got like it was after the sun deformed him. Now he comes to America in order to basically rule it. He is a Nazi and tries to get a bomb called the Broken Cross to enslave America. He also wishes to bring all of his Nazi buddies over to take over it with him. His big sidekick known as The Brow (Bruce Campbell). The Brow however really stands on his own in this film and really is just a great villain on his own. We also see some scenes of relationship troubles between Tess (Julianne Moore) and Dick Tracy (Tom Hanks). She leaves him, returns to him and leaves him once more. Dick Tracy once again is set up to take down the bad guys in this city. We get a first look at The Kid (Liam Aiken) as well, who helps Tracy solve the crimes. As far as plot’s go for film’s, this has one of the best so far.

FINAL PLOT GRADE: 95/100

DIALOGUE: The dialogue is great as well. Bryan Bishop writes great dialogue with some nice whimsical remarks, like in this film from Bruce Campbell. Bruce is the ultimate at acting cool and he plays a perfect Brow. Dialogue between characters is extremely important. It needs to sound like they would actually say this as they are interacting with one another and that’s what Bishop does extremely well with this film. Dick Tracy has amazing dialogue in the lead and I loved the chemistry that he had with The Kid on screen.

FINAL DIALOGUE GRADE: 95/100

CHARACTERS: Characters in films are extremely important, especially in films like this. The characters carry the film and are actually the best part of the film. There are so many great mobster like characters that we get from the Dick Tracy comics and Bishop writes them incredibly well into this film. He has basically made them his own. His original characters are great too and are extremely believable. Dick Tracy is one of the greatest characters ever created and Bishop writes him into his Tracy films with such depth. We also finally get to see Pruneface, one of the best Dick Tract villains. All of the characters really make this film great.

FINAL CHARACTERS GRADE: 100/100

CASTING: I think that the casting once again was perfect for this film. Even the casting of The Olsen twins as the Summer twins was great. I think that they really worked well for the parts. Bruce Campbell is the best cast in his role of The Brow and is a huge reason why the film worked so well. Julianne Moore makes such a great Tess, and, well...she’s hot! The supporting cast once again is perfect with such people like John C. Reilly and Brendan Gleeson adding support with their roles. Tom Hanks really pulls of the role of Dick Tracy. I think that he makes the perfect Dick Tracy.

FINAL CASTING GRADE: 100/100

PACING: This is probably the best paced film here at HTG. Bishop writes with interesting characters and we always want to see what happens next and we are entertained and happy when we do find out what happens next. The film goes by fast, even though the film is quite long. I think that this film series will just be as well paced as this one. The action is great and constantly keeps us at the edge of our seats, but we get to know the great characters as well. The great pacing makes this one hell of a film.

FINAL PACING GRADE: 100/100

ADVERTISING: The advertising in this film was fantastic. Once again we get a great website with great character portraits and we get the classic Tom Hanks Dick Tracy outfit. I think that Bishop advertised this film really well. The Julianne Moore pictorial was my favorite of course, because she makes me all hot and sweaty and she was looking extra hot on the poster. Some of the other character portraits really didn’t capture my attention and some of them look a bit amateurish, however the ads all together were very well done.

FINAL ADVERTISING GRADE: 90/100

WRITING: I think that overall the writing was fantastic. We have everything here to make a great film. There is a great plot, great characters and great casting of those characters. I think overall it was written very well with great pacing and the film just overall fell together really nicely. There were few spelling errors, which made the film a breeze to read. However with Bishop’s writing style in his play format it makes some of the transitions hard to follow. Overall though, it’s the best written film so far here at HTG.

FINAL WRITING GRADE: 95/100

FINAL OVERALL GRADE: 97/100

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MBRODERICK Reviews DICK TRACY: THE BROKEN CROSS

Dick Tracy: Broken Cross centers on a Nazi plot to land troops on American soil by the use of super weapon. The super weapon is called, you guessed it, The Broken Cross. This is juxtaposed with Tracy trying to balance his professional and personal life (he’s having a bit of trouble with his lady friend). There’s also a crazed doctor called The Brow running around, along with a gangster who wants vengeance on poor Dick. The plot’s pretty dense especially for a summer movie like this but because I think you should go see it I’m not going to explain it any further.  

I love what Bryan Bishop does. That is, I love his movies, not every single one, but enough to be pretty certain that going into Dick Tracy: BC, I was going to enjoy it. And I did, but I did have some problems with it. I’m going to go into those first.  

The movie is just too damn long. Sure in size 10 Times New Roman font it comes out to about 120 pages which is proper for this type of movie but in the proper font and size (not to mention formatting) it would be at least 200 pages. It seems like Bishop is subscribing to the J.K. Rowling idea that with all the success there is no longer a need to cut things. But every filmmaker must for the sake of the viewer minimize the running time as much as possible. The length would be understandable if there weren’t so many scenes that didn’t seem to serve any point to advancing the story or the characters. There was also more than a little repetition. Unfortunately the length will probably prevent me from reading again because there was a lot of stuff I’m sure a missed, it’s that type of movie.  

Aside from the length, it has a whole lot going for it. The action sequences are richly described and the world Tracy and his cohorts inhabit is easily visualized especially through the impeccable lens of Tim Burton. The excellent set of villains (Joe Pesci, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Campbell) reminds of the perfection provided by the evil triumvirates in Batman Returns (Walken, DeVito, Pfeiffer) and the more recent Batman Begins (Wilkinson, Murphy, Neeson). The cast overall is for the most part, glorious. Hanks is always good, but I really loved Julianne Moore as Tess. It’s not everyday you get to see an action star in his 40s with a love interest (if that’s the proper term here) who is also in her 40s. Really though, the joy here is in watching Dick Tracy slog his way through the incredible violence and just never give up. You end up viewing the guy as a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Rambo, and honestly there are few combinations more awesome (or lethal) than that.  

Taken as a whole, the piece works because it is fun and just really holds your interest better than your average big summer action spectacle. As I’ve mentioned, the length at times detracts from this and the movie does occasionally chase its own tail, but really it ends up being forgivable because the whole thing just hangs together so well to paraphrase The Dude.   

75/100