AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Wizard-8 While "Report to the Commissioner" isn't a perfect movie, there is always a kernel of interest to keep viewers interested enough to watch to the very end. The first half I will admit is weaker than the second half - actor Michael Moriarty seems too wimpish and naive to be a police officer, and the plot moves along very slowly. But even during this weaker first half, the movie offers a fascinating slice of life of what New York City was like in the early 1970s; you can really feel the grit and atmosphere. Patient viewers will be rewarded with a lively second half. There are a couple of well directed pursuit sequences, and the whole elevator sequence is quite riveting. And the ending, while somewhat predictable, does pack a punch. Fans of cynical 1970s cop movies will enjoy this best, though it's also rewarding to others, provided they possess a reasonable amount of patience.

bkoganbing Report to the Commissioner is a film about a misfit detective who does not heed the warning of his senior partner and gets himself into one beautiful jackpot as Andy Sipowicz would put it. It's an underrated classic film from the seventies with an interesting cast and a lot of good performances.Abby Mann wrote the original screenplay of Report to the Commissioner and Mann who is famous for writing Judgement at Nuremberg also is the creator of that classic police series Kojak from the seventies. The film does have a Kojak feel to it. Shooting the thing entirely on location in New York really helps with the believability of the plot.Michael Moriarty plays a young and very naive detective assigned to what looks to be the Midtown North Precinct in Manhattan. He comes from a police family and he's assigned to partner with Yaphett Kotto who worked with Moriarty's father.At the same time Susan Blakely is a young, fresh faced, but most experienced detective whose all American good looks fool a lot of perpetrators. She decides to get close to a big time drug dealer played by Tony King to get the goods on him.To make her cover as a runaway sound feasible, higher up captain Hector Elizondo has Moriarty make some routine inquiries looking for Blakely under her street name of Chicklet. The only problem is that Moriarty takes the assignment way too seriously, earnestly trying to win respect among his peers. It results in tragedy all around.The cast is really finely tuned in this film. Especially Elizondo who will chill you with his attitude. He turns in a fine performance as a bureaucratic cop real good at department politics, but a real snake as a human being.In one of his earliest roles is William Devane who has only one scene in the film questioning Moriarty about what's happened. Devane's a hotshot Assistant District Attorney who's practically salivating over a homicide conviction, another scalp for his lodgepole so to speak. You will remember him.Report to the Commissioner is a nice look at the Seventies in New York and a great police drama. You will agree that Yaphett Kotto gave Moriarty the best advice about knowing the players in a given situation.

jdamico5 I just got back from a film club screening of Report to the Commissioner, followed by a Q & A with Jonathan Demme...I loved it!I thought that Michael Moriarity's performance was amazing; he was able to capture the ambivalence of wanting to do "the right thing", according to his value system, and carrying out the legacy that his father had wanted for his older brother, who'd been killed in Vietnam.His internal torture was brilliantly played in the elevator scene, in which he was wordless, but communicated his conflict and terror chillingly nonetheless.The most touching scene for me was when he was giving his statement to the police officials. When he was questioned about his "subversive" college activities he poignantly stated that he had protested the (Vietnam) war. It was resonant for me, having been one of those protesters, and relevant to these times--- our war in Iraq, and the current political environment which implies that anyone protesting it is "un-American". Looking at the demographics on this site in terms of voting on this film, I find it very interesting that my age cohort gave this film the highest ratings. Perhaps it's because we lived through times that make this film cinema verite'. I'd love to hear other's opinions on this interesting phenomenon.

tom_jeffords WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS! I really wanted to like this movie but I just could not. This cast is just excellent. Any movie where Richard Gere is an extra has a good cast. I mean hey, Michael Moriatry, Yaphet Kotto, and Suan Blakely is hard to beat. But the plot is just not believeable. Undercover policewoman moves with a dope dealer to get the goods on him? HELLO! Anything she comes up with is instantly thrown out of court! And it goes down hill from there.