If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Sidney Lumet is something of a maker of modern classics, he's the guy other directors imitate to the point of plagiarism. Elements in other films that are considered clichés are originals in his work.Q&A looks and feels old school from the very first scenes. The sets inside the police precinct are especially realistic, although I've never been in a New York police station. All of the actors look the part even more. Timothy Hutton was definitely the weakest link in the acting chain, but you can't blame Lumet for that. Hutton was hot back then. Nolte was at his best, and his best was pretty good.

Q&A casts Nick Nolte as a hero supercop who is known for cutting corners to get results. The film opens with him doing his own gangland style execution of a Puerto Rican drug dealer. But given his status in the NYPD he's expecting a clean bill of health. As it is a homicide and the Chief of the Homicide Bureau in the New York County DA's office Patrick O'Neal assigns young ADA Timothy Hutton fresh to the Bureau on his first case there. O'Neal much like the Navy in A Few Good Men expecting Tom Cruise to plea bargain the defendants, expects Hutton to do a perfunctory job and clear Nolte. And why not, Hutton is a former cop who went to law school at night to get his degree and he's the son of a former colleague of Nolte's.But Hutton has a string of idealism in him and that complicates matters all around. So do the homicide cops assigned to investigate Nolte and both know him, Charles S. Dutton and Luis Guzman. Also Hutton has an unknown connection to one of the chief witnesses Armand Assante who is another drug dealer, but way up on the scale. He's now married to a woman Hutton used to see when he was a beat cop in the 23rd precinct which is Spanish Harlem played by Jenny Lumet.Director Sidney Lumet loves New York even the dark underbelly of the Big Apple. We've never seen it so systemically corrupt as it is in Q&A. In many ways the most idealistic character in the film is that played by Armand Assante. Another good character is that of Lee Richardson who plays an investigator with the DA's office who has learned to bend and not let things break him. O'Neal has a vested interest in this outcome, but it's one I couldn't get my mind wrapped around. Still he is chillingly malevolent and has big political ambitions. Hutton has a vested interest as well, he's part of the corruption though he doesn't realize it until the end.Nolte is one out of control racist, homophobic cop who like so many homophobes has those latent tendencies in him. Check his interaction with some of the gay and transgender folks involved in this case. Q&A is not one of Lumet's best films, still his all seeing camera makes New York itself part of the cast and he gets some great performances from his ensemble.

I really loved this movie when it first came out. It was sort of a Serpico for the 90's. The plot is a little convoluted and the movie could have perhaps used a little better screen writing, but the great performances by the magnificent cast more than makes this movie work.What I really think the movie does best is capture NYC as it was then. The dark side, the corruption of the political, judicial and law enforcement divisions. The not-so subtle racial divisiveness. It's all amazingly real and being a born and bred New Yorker,it was scary to watch, yet all too believable. I loved that all the characters in this movie are flawed and human. There is no real right or wrong in this movie - just shades of gray. This has been done many times in movies before and is nothing new, particularly with Sidney Lumet films, but I can't think of a movie that has done it better.I saw one user post a criticism for the last five minutes, I can't think of a better ending for this movie. (Spoiler alert.) When Bloomey tells Francis Reilly that it's all over and they're going to do nothing about his investigation but file it away and gives him the hard knock explanations as to why and how the world really works. I was just as floored by this scene the first time I watched it as Francis Reilly is in the movie. I just love this ending. The short epilogue with Jenny Lumet's character is OK and serves to sort of tie up a last loose end in the film.By the way, to that other commentator about the cheesy Rueben Blades theme song. (Don't double cross the ones you love.") Your not the only one who can't get that cheesy song out of your head whenever you watch this movie.Perhaps Blades should pursue a career as a jingle songwriter instead, he seems to have a lot of potential talent for it.

Messily written film about an internal investigation of a murder by a star police officer. The film takes it's point-of-view from the investigator, and creates it's drama by following him deeper into the case.The poor screenplay and over-complication lets this film down. Nick Nolte's character is pretty much the only thing that will you keep you interested, as unlikable as he is.The side-line love story adds nothing to the film, apart from adding to any impatience you may be experiencing about the conclusion of what should be a very simple story.Armand Assante is very good in this also, and you can't help but wonder why they didn't exploit his talents a little more, and the lead character's a little less.