Al Pacino and John Cazale, fresh from their turn as Corleone brothers in the Godfather series, play a stranger brand of criminal here. Pacino's character has planned a simple bank robbery to get money for his wife's medical bills. Unfortunately, things go wrong right from the start. Before the day is out, the police, the media, and half of Brooklyn is right outside the bank. Despite its true-to-life origins (Dog Day is based on an actual incident), the film is largely a comedy, bittersweet because the humor comes from the hopeless optimism of the average Joe.

Harold Check