a5c7b9f00b A modern-day crime epic focusing on the efforts of two unorthodox police officers to bring down a drug gang at the height of New York City's crack cocaine epidemic of 10 years ago. The film also chronicles the rise and fall of Nino Brown, the antagonist of the film, in a light study of drug proliferation and its effects on poor neighborhoods. As numerous attempts to break the control of the gang fail and violence begins to escalate, how far will the police go to catch Nino Brown? In 1989, Nino Brown, a small time drug dealer, is convinced by one of his fellow thugs that the wave of the future is in the cocaine derivative, crack. Brown sees potential in crack and sets out to establish himself as chief kingpin by killing off his rivals and even going as far as to take over a whole apartment complex. Out to stop him are undercover cops Scottie Appleton and Nick Paretti. Appleton especially wants to get Nino because of the fact that he murdered Scottie's mother as part of a gang initiation. Also involved is Pookie, a former crack head who wants to bring down Nino as well. This is a good movie, but it's a complete rip off of SCARFACE. I mean it's exactly the same.<br/><br/>The druglord, played very well by Wesley Snipes, who climbs the ranks of the criminal underworld.<br/><br/>This could possibly be a remake. <br/><br/>If you have seen this movie, and not seen SCARFACE, go and check it out the stories are almost identical. <br/><br/>But overall still enjoyable. <br/><br/>SCARFACE is better though. New Jack City was the first movie I'd ever seen that dealt with drugs to the degree that it did. Sure I'd seen Scarface but that was strictly from the perspective of Tony Montana and just how wealthy a single man could get. I'd even seen Less than Zero but that was the effects of drugs on a single user. New Jack City was about the dealers, the users, the police and even the community.<br/><br/>Before there was a Lil Wayne and Cash Money Millionaires or a Floyd Mayweather and The Money Team there was Nino Brown and the Cash Money Brothers, a trio of drug dealers consisting of Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes), G-Money (Allen Payne), and Duh Duh Man (Bill Nunn). They turned small time dealing into a large operation with the help of crack cocaine. They made drug dealing a burgeoning enterprise. <br/><br/>If you have any fear that New Jack City did nothing more than to glorify drug dealing then fear not. Nino did make it, so to speak, but he was a despicable human being with no redeeming qualities except a single psychopathic drive to make as much money as he could (if that can be considered a redeemable quality). And for that depiction I was grateful. <br/><br/>But Nino and CMB (Cash Money Brothers) were only a part of the story, we also needed to see the police as well as the users. Out to get Nino was probably one of the coolest cops ever in Scotty Appleton (Ice-T). He wasn't Dirty Harry cool, he was street cool. He came up from the very streets he was trying to save. And the user they focused on was a young Chris Rock playing Pooky. He succumbed hard to his crack addiction and was subsequently cleaned up. We saw him go through his drying out process which looked like he was going through a painful metamorphosis. <br/><br/>New Jack City was gritty, grimy, and good. Some things were dramatized and exaggerated for sure but it worked. This was Mario Van Peebles movie directorial debut and I'd say he hit a home run. The movie was dramatic, exciting, intense and conveyed what drugs in the inner cities was all about. Bad as the overall design remains, individual scenes keep sparking alive, partly because the dialogue, or delivery, seems fresh, and improvisatory; partly because Van Peebles, in his directorial debut, figures out unusual or athletic camera designs for every scene. It's obvious he has talent, equally obvious there's no way this story can work right, no matter how strenuous the staging.
tiopankecal Admin replied
363 weeks ago