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We Own the Night
Movie Stats & Links |
Starring: |
Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg,
Eva Mendes, Robert Duvall |
MPAA Rated: |
R |
Released By: |
Columbia Pictures |
Web Site: |
weownthenightmovie.com |
Kiddie Movie: |
Please leave them
at home, unlike the mom in front of me at the theater. |
Date Movie: |
It's good for the
both of you. |
Gratuitous Sex: |
Eva diddles
herself and there's some boobs! |
Gratuitous
Violence: |
It's about the
police and Russian drug people. Duh? |
Action: |
There's a chase
scene. |
Laughs: |
A couple of
chuckles. |
Memorable
Scene: |
The opening scene
with Eva Mendes. |
Memorable
Quote: |
"If you piss your
pants you only stay warm for so long," & "It's better to be
judged by twelve than carried by six." |
Directed By: |
James Gray |
Produced By: |
Mark Wahlberg,
Joaquin Phoenix, Nick Wechsler, Marc Butan |
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We Own the Night
A Movie Review |
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You've gotta love when a mom seems to want to train her kid
young. Yup, there I am sitting and waiting for "We Own the
Night" and in comes Mom with I’m assuming her son, and if I
had to place his age I’d say he was no more than ten years
old. Lady, did you even watch the trailer or look at the
rating (it’s R by the way), or do you want your kid to maybe
get interested in the sex industry, or maybe take up drugs
and alcohol. Sure, maybe the kid will actually like the cop
side of the story more and then enter law enforcement, but
can’t you give him a few more years to decide. Anyway, on to
the movie…
"We Own the Night" gives us the familiar story of two
brothers taking different career paths, and dad, of course,
having his favorite son while looking down on the other. In
our case we get Dad being the Police Chief (Robert Duval),
the good son being police officer Joseph (Mark Wahlberg),
and the son on the wayward path being Bobby (Joaquin
Phoenix). Bobby manages a way-successful nightclub in
Brooklyn, owned by what seems like a nice Russian dude, and
Bobby thinks he is on his way to maybe next running the next
best thing in Manhattan. He’s also got his girl, Amada (Eva
Mendes), but the problem is that Bobby’s club also seems to be
the hotbed of the cocaine industry and when dear old dad
and brother warn him about it, or especially about Vadim (Alex
Veadov), the nephew of the club’s owner, Bobby
blows them off.
Anyway, the club gets raided, the Russian mob/drug dealers
are pissed, Joseph gets shot, Bobby feels guilty, Bobby goes
undercover to make it up to his brother and maybe save dad’s
life, things don’t go too well, people get caught and
escape, people die, but in the end Bobby finds redemption
and the siblings are friends again.
I’d give away even more of the movie, but I’m going to
guess that as you are sitting there watching it you will
probably be able to figure out every plot twist involved, I
know I did.
I really wanted to like "We Own the Night" a lot more,
but for me, at least, the movie was just way too
predictable. Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg show they
both still have great acting in them, and Robert Duval
doesn’t need to show it but still holds his own. Eva Mendes
was hot and shows right off the bat that her Amada character
doesn’t really need Bobby’s help to pleasure her, she can
handle it herself, and transitions nicely from the slutty
girlfriend to one just confused of the situation she finds
herself in. But the movie also seemed to have too many flaws
as well, like Bobby being able to keep his identity as the
son and brother of some police officers a secret, his taking too long
to figure out who the squealer was, the escape of the bad
dude, and fine, I’m going to give a little something away,
but since when, on a bust operation on a building, are the
cops not surrounding the entire area so people can’t jump
out of the back of the building?
To see Eva looking hot as ever, with some decent action
and chase scenes, you can’t go wrong with "We Own the
Night," but I would say it’s probably more worth it as a DVD
rental than heading to the big screen. Being just too damn
predictable would give it 2 stars, but with Eva diddling
herself and some nudity, that bumps it a tad to a final
rating of 2 1/2 stars out of 5.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |