{"id":9418,"date":"2024-11-30T12:07:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9418"},"modified":"2024-11-30T12:07:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:07:36","slug":"narc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/narc\/","title":{"rendered":"Narc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Narc<\/strong> (2002)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong brutal violence, drug content, pervasive language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joe Carnahan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joe Carnahan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Cliff Martinez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alex Nepomniaschy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 17, 2002 (US, limited)\/January 10, 2003 (US, wide)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jason Patric, Ray Liotta, Chi McBride, Krista Bridges, Busta Rhymes, Richard Chevolleau, Alan van Sprang, Anne Openshaw, Stacey Farber, Tony De Santis, John Ortiz, Marilo Nunez.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $10.4M (US)\/$12.6M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The intense cop drama Narc<\/strong> is about as far from Lethal Weapon as a movie can get without leaving the bounds of the genre. Whereas Mel Gibson and Danny Glover go about busting perps in a joking manner, Jason Patric (Rush) and Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) take their job very, VERY seriously. You\u2019ve heard of \u201cGood Cop, Bad Cop\u201d? These guys are \u201cBad Cop, Worse Cop\u201d. Which one is which depends on the minute.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Written and directed by Joe Carnahan (Smokin\u2019 Aces), Narc <\/strong>is a cold, gritty crime drama set in the mean, dirty streets of Detroit. It\u2019s the time of year when the skies are as bleak and gray as the main characters\u2019 surroundings. It\u2019s in this foul, unsightly urban wasteland that we first meet undercover narc Nick Tellis (Patric) as he chases a drug dealer through streets and backyards, over fences and through somebody\u2019s house. Filmed with a handheld camera, the picture shakes and jumps constantly giving it a disorienting effect. It ends in a playground where Nick accidentally shoots a pregnant woman causing her to miscarry. Although he also kills the dealer, he\u2019s kicked off the force.<\/p>\n

\u00a018 months later, Nick is offered a chance at reinstatement. The guilt-ridden ex-narc is asked by Capt. Cheevers (McBride, Gone in 60 Seconds) to look into the shooting death of another undercover cop. That means going back undercover to reconnect with his old contacts. He initially refuses. He doesn\u2019t want to put his family through that kind of hell again. At the same time, he needs redemption. He reluctantly agrees to accept the assignment on the condition he\u2019s partnered with the dead cop\u2019s partner Henry Oak (Liotta), a cynical loose cannon whose methods aren\u2019t exactly moral or legal. He\u2019s armed, volatile and extremely dangerous. This is a cop who thinks nothing of brutally assaulting a prisoner right there in the station.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The two cops aren\u2019t exactly a match made in heaven. Henry\u2019s immediately suspicious of the younger cop. He asks Nick if he\u2019s working for Internal Affairs. He goes on to say the department isn\u2019t really interested in solving the case; they just want to bury it. It\u2019s clear Henry doesn\u2019t want to work with Nick. He keeps shutting him out. It\u2019s like he has a private agenda.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Nick\u2019s home life isn\u2019t rosy either. His wife Audrey (Bridges, Land of the Dead) is against him returning to the police force. She hates the effect the job has on him. He tells her that won\u2019t be the case this time, but she doesn\u2019t buy it. She wants him to be around to see their infant son grow up. As expected, it quickly becomes a source of friction.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That\u2019s really all there is to say about the plot. It doesn\u2019t really matter since Narc<\/strong> is driven more by character than plot. Here we have two dedicated cops, one bad and the other a little less so. They both believe in doing whatever it takes to get the job done. They question suspects and other assorted lowlifes with no regard for their civil rights. If they have to beat information out of somebody, so be it. They\u2019re definitely NOT heroes. You\u2019re not sitting there rooting for them as they dispense their idea of justice. If anything, you\u2019re shocked by their flagrant disregard for procedure and common decency. This is so NOT a fun cop movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The two lead performances are phenomenal. Liotta excels at playing unhinged characters like Henry Oak. He\u2019s definitely aged since playing coke-fuelled mobster Henry Hill in Goodfellas. He\u2019s heavier and sports a bushy, graying beard. A deep cauldron of rage bubbles right beneath the surface; it\u2019s just waiting to boil over. It does a few times like when he \u201cinterrogates\u201d a couple of suspects in an auto body shop. He\u2019s scarier than a lot of criminals. Patric is totally believable as a guilt-driven cop in a moral quandary. He wants to catch a cop killer, but how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice? Is he willing to go to the same lengths as his partner?<\/p>\n

\u00a0While there\u2019s nothing fun about Narc<\/strong>, there are flashes of dark humor that lighten the mood ever so slightly. One involves a dead drug dealer who bought the farm by trying to smoke dope through a loaded shotgun. The other involves a junkie who set his girlfriend\u2019s hair on fire for giving him VD, very painful VD. These bits are funny in the blackest sense. Things like this can only happen in the drug subculture.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Narc<\/strong> is a stylish, neo-noir film. The frenzied editing and harsh cinematography will be a turn-off to some, but it\u2019s the exact right look for a movie set in a world ruled by injustice and brutality. It\u2019s a world inhabited by junkies, dealers, morally ambivalent cops and arrogant suits motivated by politics. Carnahan pulls no punches in his depiction of it either. Narc<\/strong> hits hard while telling a compelling story with an ending reminiscent of Rashomon. I think it\u2019s a great film. It\u2019s bleak, realistic, unsettling and will leave you feeling unclean. Who says all cop movies have to be feel-good affairs?\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Narc (2002)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong brutal violence, drug content, pervasive language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joe Carnahan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joe Carnahan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Cliff Martinez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alex Nepomniaschy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 17, 2002 (US, limited)\/January 10, 2003 (US, wide)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jason Patric, Ray Liotta, Chi McBride, Krista Bridges, Busta Rhymes, Richard Chevolleau, Alan van Sprang, Anne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Narc-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9418"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9621,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418\/revisions\/9621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}