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Rosie
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Joined: 28 Jun 2007
Posts: 509
Location: Wisconsin, USA
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| Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:16 am Post subject: Seattlepi.com - a good one! |
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'We Own the Night:' Two brothers on opposite sides of the law and each other
By WILLIAM ARNOLD
P-I MOVIE CRITIC
For many decades now, whenever two big male stars team up for a movie, it's invariably for a light buddy vehicle in which their personalities spark off one other in a comedic way -- think Newman and Redford, Gibson and Glover, Clooney and Pitt.
GRADE: B+
But in "We Own the Night," Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg join hands (as producers as well as stars) in a formula that was a staple of the Golden Age of Hollywood but has rarely been seen since -- playing brothers who grew up on opposite sides of the law.
Consummately directed by James Gray (who helmed the 2000 Wahlberg-Phoenix teaming "The Yards"), the film moves at a riveting pace, and develops a mounting emotional power and a sumptuous gangster-epic flair that only a tad too obviously evokes "The Godfather."
Phoenix gets the showier part of a high-living, prodigal son of a dynasty of New York City cops, circa 1988, who manages a hip Brooklyn nightspot where drugs flow freely and the pipeline is in the process of being taken over by the Russian mafia.
Wahlberg plays his cop brother, a high-achieving Brooklyn precinct captain who, with his equally straight-laced captain-father (Robert Duvall), is deeply concerned by the rising crime wave in the borough and their wayward family member's place in it.
When the situation erupts into an all-out war between the mob and the police, the Phoenix character is torn between family loyalty and attachments to various friends and business associates in the night world, including his Latina girlfriend (Eva Mendes).
If this all sounds slightly hokey, rest assured that Gray rises above the clichés inherent in his concept with an imaginative and layered script; and Phoenix drives the movie with a flashy and agonizingly believable performance -- for my money, his best work ever.
Unlike most current action-dramas, which start with a bang and quickly fade to tedium, this one just gets better and sharper as it powers along and -- passing the true test of a good movie -- its third act is by far its strongest.
Be warned that the tone is explicit and the actors get drenched with ketchup, but the violence is more ritualized than shocking and some of Gray's scenes are truly dazzling -- including a car chase in the rain that's my nominee for the year's most heart-pounding action sequence.
Best of all, "We Own the Night" (the title is a NYPD motto) is not afraid to be about something besides action: At its core, it's an exploration of the demands and obligations of brotherly love, staged with honesty, originality and a surprising spark of intelligence.
Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/335133_night12q.html
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jpfan4life
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Joined: 29 Sep 2007
Posts: 337
Location: San Antonio, TX
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| Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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Good read, Rosie, thanks! I've seen it twice now and can't wait to see it again! ; )
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