Mad Dog and Glory (1993) **** (out of 4) A lonely and wimpy cop (Robert DeNiro) saves the life of a mobster (Bill Murray) so as a thank you gift the mobster gives the cop a thank you present for a week in the form of Glory (Uma Thurman). The two eventually fall in love but since she's still the gangster girl there's going to be a problem with the cop trying to keep her. I still remember when this film was released as it got all sorts of very good reviews but it didn't really catch an audience, which is a real shame but the bigger shame is that it still hasn't become too well known even after fifteen years. To me this is one of the best comedies of the decade and a film that gets better with each new viewing. What makes this comedy so special is that we get two great actors changing their roles and playing the opposite of what we're use to seeing them do. I also think this is one of DeNiro's greatest performance just because of how fun he is here. We're use to seeing him play dark and tormented characters so it's great fun seeing him at the opposite end of the pole and playing a real wimp who really can't do anything right. Murray is downright wonderful in the role of the mobster who wants to be a comic. Murray's comic timing hits all the right notes and he even manages to come off threatening in the scenes where he has to try and rough up DeNiro. Thurman is easy on the eyes and comes off very well. Supporting players David Caruso, Mike Starr, Kathy Baker and Tom Towles also shine in their moments. Starr isn't very well known but he's always been one of my favorite character actors and his brand of comedy adds a lot of great scenes to the film. All of the comedy leads to a wonderful street fight at the end when DeNiro finally snaps and becomes the "Mad Dog", which is a hilarious sequence and in my opinion one of the best street fights in any movie. After seeing DeNiro's character being bullied the entire film, to finally see him snap was very exciting and funny.

This is a movie with a nice story, but I've never seen De Niro's wonderful acting totally wasted as in this movie; his performance is good, if he acts to render a shy, dumb, introvert cop/detective that is somewhat involved in a small-mafia situation, but , to be honest, people want to see him cool, outgoing, self-confident..It's not the role for him, definitely.Bill Murray fits a little bit better, but it appears unpleasant, most of the time ...Uma Thurman has the best character, and as a whole, I'd say that the movie is worth a view, but it will seldom make you laugh ...

Yes, I admit it. I only watched this flick to see Uma Thurman. Any chance I get to spend some time with her is well worth it, and she certainly did not disappoint here.I have to admit that Bill Murray gave a very good performance. He just seems to float through his roles with ease. I'm sure he works hard at it, but he makes it look so easy.David Caruso was also good and I admit that I have a certain fondness for him. I think he gets criticized unfairly.All in all a film that was OK, but not great. It was, as I said, a chance to revel in Uma's beauty for a while.

***SPOILERS*** Off-beat love story about a Chicago Police photographer getting involved with a mobsters woman who's life he just saved. Wayne "Mad Dog" Dobie, Robert De Niro, is on the scene of a double-murder when he decides to go to a nearby bodega to get a bite to eat. It's there that he notices that the counter boy, Derek Annuniation, is really a stick-up man with the bodega owner shot dead and a customer on the floor with a gun to his head.Wayne the "Mad Dog" talking the hoodlum into just walking away, since there's dozens of cops swarming all around the neighborhood, takes takes his advice and scoots out of the place. Later at the local bar where Wayne is having a few drinks with his fellow police photographer Mike, David Caruso, he's approached by this big soft-spoken hood Harold, Mike Starr. Harold asks Wayne to go to the Comic-Cazie club, free of charge and even have a drink on the house,to see his boss who says he owes Wayne a favor.Wayne not at first interested to go to the Comic-Cazie nightclub changes his mind and finds to his surprise that the star attraction there is stand-up comedian Frank Milo, Bill Murray, the person who's life he saved at the bodega! Not only that but that Frank is also the owner of the club and a big-time Chicago hoodlum who specializes in lone sharking. Frank is so appreciative of Wayne's cool-handedness that kept him from getting his brains blown out that he sends him this, the best word I can find to describe her, geisha girl who he calls Glory,Uma Thurman,to live at his apartment and fulfill his wildest fantasies for a week as a gift of his gratitude.Glory just happened to be a bartender at the Comic-Cazie the night Wayne went there to see the show and accidentally burned him by spilling a pitcher of hot coffee on his hand which wasn't exactly the best way the meet his future "salve-girl". As Glory opens up about her involvement with Frank whom she's indebted to in order to save her brother, who owes Frank some $70,000.00, from ending up in the bottom of Lake Michigan Wayne starts to slowly fall in love with her. Wayne gets so hooked on Glory where he refuses to return her back to Frank after her weeks stay with him and even goes so far to try buy her back from him. Wayne also became very disturbed after he got to shack up with Glory when the robber/murderer of the bodega was later found shot and killed and dumped in a garbage can. Which had all the earmarks of a mob hit engineered by non-other then his new friend and benefactor Frank Milo.Making up his mind not to return Glory back to Frank, and a life of slavery, leads to Wayne being marked for either a beating or even getting whacked by the Milo Mob. This brings the very best out of Wayne turning the meek and introverted "Mad Dog" into a fearless and unflinching tiger. Who not only takes on Frank Milo and his gang but inspires his fellow police friends, who he in the end Wayne really didn't need, to come to his aid.The movie just grows on you even though you have trouble at first accepting it's premise "The Cop and the Salve Girl". The top-notch acting by all involved, especially Robert De Niro, makes you easily overlook all of the films "Mad Dog and Glory" faults and inconsistencies and just sit back and enjoy it.