Police contre police

just want to say a friend of mine gave me the website to profaci(john fiore 's new movie johnny slade's greatest hits. www.johnnyslade.net it brought back all the old feeling i had for the character

this movie and fiore in particular was a riot...its being released soon i hear. it reminded me of how good a character profaci was and what a shame it was to see him so dissed by the egomaniac NOTH...

when i watch things ,i root for the underdogs like profaci. i watch the smaller players and study them...like a lot of L&O freaks ,i dug the guy. with all the recycles..why hasn't wolf brought him back?

exiled was profaci's best and last moments on the show. here's to you profaci.. cheers

My wife and I are rabid Law and Order fans, so when they reran this the other week on my day off, I was excited to see it for the first time. I think the series is generally as good as ever overall (some ups and downs), but I agree with several other reviewers here that the classic years were those with Chris Noth and Jill Hennessy.

I have to say, having skipped it when it premiered, I really enjoyed the film. I thought it was a fantastic opportunity to see the familiar settings with a new pair of eyes (Noth's), to the point that I could forgive it some character inconsistencies (e.g., I had a hard time recognizing Lenny Briscoe). It also explained for me where Profaci went (other than over to the Sopranos).

Some remarks on comments by other viewers:

1) The latina maid

The numerous cast changes this series has undergone has given ample opportunity to show that cops don't like having to work with new partners. Logan didn't know there would be a spanish-speaking maid, and he didn't know Rey, so why would he bring him along?

Also, I can't speak for New York, which I wouldn't be surprised to find has a realistic policy for dealing with multilingualism, but we must remember that the L&O franchise is overseen by Dick Wolf from Los Angeles. Here in Occupied Mexico, a shocking number of the non-latino minority (particularly cops) display what I can only describe as clueless pride in knowing NO spanish whatsoever.

2) Staten Island

Having never been there, I can't speak to the endless disdain other New Yorkers express toward S.I. as a boring backwater. It's immaterial to the plot, however. From early on in the movie, it's made clear that the reason Logan is working petty crimes is that in his banishment, HE WAS NOT ASSIGNED TO HOMICIDE. 'Kay?

If you are a huge Law & Order fan, I recommend catching this film when it comes around again. Otherwise, I don't know what your interest would be.

Law & Order fans will appreciate the return of Chris Noth to the setting, and also the slightly longer look at New York City, which obviously cannot be caught in the pacing of a regular episode. The film does seem to attempt to crowd in a few too many Law & Order characters from the period and the years previous to it, and sometimes the pacing is a little slow. Dana Eskelson is adorable as a Logan's partner, a detective who grew up around the Uzielli crime family, and takes this and her status as a woman on the force to mean she has something to prove. Ice-T is hilarious as an absurdly named pimp, but Nicole Ari Parker's performance as victim's sister and Logan's love interest is lackluster and unconvincing. All in all, this movie is not a waste of your time, if you are a Law & Order junkie like the rest of us.

I'm not sure how captivating this movie would be for those who didn't love Mike Logan from the first 5 years of "Law & Order". I *think* Chris Noth did a brilliant job conveying Mike's sense of loss, despair, and alienation, but then again, I've missed him sorely from the series. But, even without that background, "Exiled" is a tightly-written and well-acted police procedural, tracking between Staten Island (the scene of Mike's exile) and Manhattan (his lost and desired home), and through the stormy emotional terrain of Mike's mind. The case -- a murdered prostitute -- is far less important than the things it leads them to: a sociopathic mobster and a crooked cop in Mike's old precinct, and even those aren't quite as compelling as the battle Mike fights with his own obsessive desire to get back to his old way of life. In the end, that desire demands more than Mike could ever have dreamed... and the end of the film is painfully real. The Staten Island Ferry visually dominates the film, as is appropriate, as it symbolises Mike's in-between state. And the contrast between the suburban streets of Staten Island and the city (especially for those who remember the episode "God Bless the Child" and Mike's comments about small-town policing) were well done. In fact, the movie was filled with resonating triplets: Staten Island-the ferry-Manhattan; Cragen-Stopher-Van Buren (Mike's bosses); his three partners (past and present); the three women (the wife, the victim, the sister)... and these added to the depth. In short, this is far, far more than a long L&O episode.

For those of you who are offended that this movie insinuates nothing happens on Staten Island--get over it-nothing does. I'm a NYC paramedic and I know of what I speak. Chris Noth played this character very realistically. I think Dick Wolf made good use of a great character and an excellent actor. I would also like to give kudos to the 34th Avenue Bowl in my old neighborhood. Chris, why didn't you tell me? We could have hung out! Jeanine