Dick Tracy

An all-star cast, vivid colors that could give you a headache and Madonna's sizzling performance made many think that "Dick Tracy" is much better than it actually is. It is one of those typical quantity over quality projects that uses smoke and mirrors to make the audience think that it is something unique and intriguing. However, the film is little more than a comic strip that jumps up at you ala the "Superman" or "Batman" group of films. Warren Beatty's performance and in-your-face direction are not totally successful. The seemingly endless name of cast members also becomes dizzying. Al Pacino (Oscar-nominated) steals every scene and pulls a Jack Nicholson from "Batman" out of his hat. "Dick Tracy" is a good film, but it is far from being a masterpiece. 4 stars out of 5.

If Dick Tracy was in black and white, the pope wouldn't be religious. Giving a new sense to the concept of color in a movie, we are offered an unique experience throughout a comic-strip world, and it's one of the few movies which succeeded in doing so, thanks to a serious script, good direction, great performances (Al Pacino is astonishing) and most importantly a powerful mix of cinematography, art direction and costume design. Using only primary colors, the experience is quite different from anything we have seen before. And there is also a quite successful hommage to all the gangster-movie genre, pratically extinct from modern cinema. Overall, I see this movie as a fresh attempt and a touch of originality to a cinema which relies more and more on the old and already-seen formulas. 7 out of 10.

If you were a fan of previous incarnations of Dick Tracy, then this is the film for you. If not, find another film to watch...

Warren Beatty does a decent enough job as Dick Tracy who battles the underworld. Warren also directed this film and did a good job.

Dick Tracy was always a great character complete with an unrivalled rogues gallery of villains (except for Batman). The villains are all here and kudos to the make-up department who made the bad guys totally hateful. The plot is also quite good as well and the colour is good too. I believe the film was shot in only six (or maybe seven) colours and the sets of the city are totally faithful to the original Dick Tracy comic strips.

Obviously, this film tried to emulate Batman but immitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This film is almost as good as Batman and certainly not deserving of the criticism it had when it first came out.

One more thing-Madonna as Breathless Mahoney. I don't know if a film like this suited Madonna but it was great to see her in it because she is beautiful and improves with age.

All in all, a cracker of a film which I urge youngsters to see because they will enjoy it.

This is amazing-looking movie with the whole thing done in just six or seven colors. When it came out over 15 years ago, it stunned audiences with its color scheme, being so different from anything else that had ever been put on film. Those colors, for me at least, make this an absolutely fascinating film to watch. There are literally thousands of scenes I wish could freeze and somehow convert them to a painting to study for their artwork.

The characters and the story don't match up to the greatness of the photography, but they are all over-the-top, especially the villains. The famous actors who played them here must have a had a lot of fun on the set playing "Flatop," "Pruneface," "Lips," "Mumbles," etc.

Meanwhile, Warren Beatty and Gleanne Hedley are good as Dick Tracey and girlfriend Tess Truehart, and she's as sweet and soft as her name. Another good addition is Charlie Korsmo as the delinquent young boy Dick and Tess take under their wing. The colorful other characters are played by Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, William Forysthe, Paul Sorvino, Mandy Patinkin, Madona and other names you know but are too numerous to list here. Check the full credits on the main page and you'll amazed.

The only negatives I found were Pacino's voice which grates on you after awhile, Madonna's off-key singing voice and the fact that the film would have been better trimmed about 10 minutes. Those "faults" are all minor because overall, this is a fun movie....a cartoon strip coming to life in an incredibly-colorful fashion.....like nothing you have ever seen.

First and Formost, this movie hits the comic strip right on the nose (it was goofy looking and freak'n violent). The one thing that always gets me is that we have detectives, feme fatales, rutheless gangsters, exploding cars and machine guns, all done in super bright rainbow colors. I find that the bright colors really pull this movie off, It conveys the whole "comic book" idea, better than the giant balloons from Batman, the verbaitum sound effects from X men, and certainly those annoying "panel" shots from hulk.