Review: We Own the Night

Set in New York in the late eighties, two brothers, one’s a cop determined to uphold the law at all costs and the other is a high-end club manager which happens to be bankrolled my the Russian mafia. Coincidently, it’s the same Russian mafia that the cop brother is trying to bring down. Club manager brother learns that the Russian bad guys have put a hit out on the cop brother annnd cop father. Dilemmas begin, loyalties are questioned and one ridiculously hot Eva Mendes who looked quite amazing in every shot all ensues.

I was looking forward to this one, I heard a few things here and there, saw the trailer awhile back and remembering this looked pretty good. It started off really cool with Miss Mendes doing something quite eye pleasing that had me glued to the screen. I was like “Wow! I can’t believe she’s doing that.” Then soon after, it went down hill from there. But I still liked the movie. For the most part it was missing a lot of “umph.”
The ending was anti-climatic, really lame final shoot out. The script was very simple, safe and by the book, it just needed stronger dialogue. However, Duvall did a few memorable lines. The main bad guy was kinda lame and he didn’t really instill any kind of fear plus he was dorky looking. The flick felt more like a good pilot for a show on HBO.

I know I sound like I’m poo pooing on it but there are some good aspects to the movie and these are the reasons why I wanted to see it in the first place. Lets talks about the players, we get Joaquin Pheonix. He brings his usual intensity to his character. Is he playing something different from what we’re use to seeing? Not really. He was good; he just didn’t bring anything that really stood out character wise. This goes double for Mark Wahlberg, who’s playing himself more and more lately. Yeah, yeah, I know he was good in THE DEPARTED but I think he was just playing a more pissed off version of himself. In this flick, he pretty much plays the same character but with a brother. The way I saw this was both these guys were producing, so why couldn’t they have brought more to the characters? Instead they just played it safe.

Eva Mendes on the other hand, looked fantastic in every shot. Look for the scene when she comes walking out of the bedroom at the house party. Very, very hot and well shot. She did a good job and looked great doing it! Robert Duvall was also good and with his caliber of acting really rounded out the cast nicely.

James Gray did a better job directing than he did on the writing. He created this great look that reminded me of an old 70’s cop movie. The car chase was well done; the fence landing made you sit up pretty straight and the first shoot out was pretty intense. The last scene however, felt like a first draft that needed to be re-worked as it just ended too abruptly and left me thinking “That’s it?”

It was alright. I was hoping it was going to blow me away but it didn’t. I don’t think you have to rush out and see this. This is one were I think you can probably appreciate it more in the comfort of your own home.

— by Tim
Goernert