Dick Tracy Special

Dick Tracy Special (2010)

*** (out of 4)

Weird short has Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty) sitting down with historian Leonard Maltin for a nearly 30-minute interview where the detective talks about his life in the comics, radio and movies. This is a pretty strange little featurette that manages to be entertaining but I must admit there were times that the thing just came across weird and especially during the scenes where Tracy, being played by Beatty, starts to comment on the 1990 film that Beatty made. These scenes just have such a weird tone to them but at the same time it was pretty interesting hearing him comment on the film. It's weird because you don't really know if it's Tracy commenting on the film or if Beatty, through the character, is telling you how he feels. If these are Beatty's thoughts, it's interesting to hear about what he didn't like with his film. Maltin basically narrates the entire history of Tracy through his career and we get to see clips from the serials, "B" films of the 1940s and of course the 1990 feature. Fans of Dick Tracy should enjoy this and those not familiar with the character should at least be able to learn the history of the detective throughout the years.