It’s been a good return on the reviews front for Al Pacino’s turn as the hugely successful and controversial music producer Phil Spector, in the eponymous HBO film about the temperamental figure.

The big haired big tempered producer has produced everyone from The Beatles to The Righteous Brothers and, erm, Starsailor in his time (no, us either). However he was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009, for shooting actress Lana Clarkson in his California home in 2003. He’s currently serving a prison sentence of 19 years to life. Pacino is playing the part of Spector in the HBO biopic, and it has to be said he’s going down very well indeed. Also starring Helen Mirren, the New York Post said of it “Mirren and Pacino are fantastic, and Tambor rightfully underplays the larger-than-life Cutler, who rivals Spector himself.”

Entertainment Weekly says, meanwhile, “The film co-stars an on-form Helen Mirren as Linda Kenney Baden, one of Spector's real-life defense attorneys.... Pacino too is excellent.” The Hollywood Reporter meanwhile references Spector’s recent jail time, by saying “Even though the movie is loaded with enough to satisfy those who believe Spector did it, as Mirren’s role is written and Pacino’s performance hints at, the film seems eager to suggest Spector was found guilty mostly of being a freak.” It continues to add “That have-it-both-ways storytelling doesn’t make Phil Spector a great legal movie, but it allows two exceptional actors and a talented writer a chance to play with reality.” The television premiere for this is on March 24th.

Al Pacino

Al Pacino gives a great performance as Phil Spector