We Own the Night (**)
Director: James Grey (The Yards, Little Odessa)
Starring: Joaquim Phoenix, Eva Mendes, Robert Duval, Mark Wahlberg
Seen: January 6th 2008
** Out of ****
As soon as the film starts, you are confronted with a rather raunchy scene between Joaquin Phoenix (Bobby) and Eva Mendes (Amada). You see very little, but nothing is left to the imagination. It leaves you slightly uncomfortable. This also tries to set the pace for the film, but ultimately fails.
The film is concerned with the relationship between two brothers, one a cop (Joe), one very much a nightclub gangster (Bobby), and their father (Burt), another cop. The two cops are, as you would expect, concerned with the lifestyle of the brother who owns the 80’s nightclub. Famous mobsters are regulars at this nightclub, and the police are salivating at the opportunity to bust in and take them down. Which they do, leading to Bobby’s arrest, and the brothers come to blows.
The raid did however not achieve its main purpose, to capture the main antagonist, Vadim (Alex Veadov). Vadim decides to retaliate on this raid by having Joe killed. This fails, leaving behind an injured “good brother”. After this mob reaction Bobby goes through some emotional turmoil and he joins the police in their hunt for Vadim. Vadim’s henchmen succeeds in killing Burt in an extremely memorable chase-scene in the rain, one of the best I’ve seen to date. Now the brothers go after the mob, and what was a great setup is essentially wasted in the final 15 minutes of the film, among the reeds in the marshes.
This film is entertaining enough to see, but ultimately forgettable, only the rain chase-scene stays with me, nothing else really…
James Gray directed this film as his follow-up film to The Yards, which is a very similar dark type of mobster film.
Starring: Joaquim Phoenix, Eva Mendes, Robert Duval, Mark Wahlberg
Seen: January 6th 2008
** Out of ****
As soon as the film starts, you are confronted with a rather raunchy scene between Joaquin Phoenix (Bobby) and Eva Mendes (Amada). You see very little, but nothing is left to the imagination. It leaves you slightly uncomfortable. This also tries to set the pace for the film, but ultimately fails.
The film is concerned with the relationship between two brothers, one a cop (Joe), one very much a nightclub gangster (Bobby), and their father (Burt), another cop. The two cops are, as you would expect, concerned with the lifestyle of the brother who owns the 80’s nightclub. Famous mobsters are regulars at this nightclub, and the police are salivating at the opportunity to bust in and take them down. Which they do, leading to Bobby’s arrest, and the brothers come to blows.
The raid did however not achieve its main purpose, to capture the main antagonist, Vadim (Alex Veadov). Vadim decides to retaliate on this raid by having Joe killed. This fails, leaving behind an injured “good brother”. After this mob reaction Bobby goes through some emotional turmoil and he joins the police in their hunt for Vadim. Vadim’s henchmen succeeds in killing Burt in an extremely memorable chase-scene in the rain, one of the best I’ve seen to date. Now the brothers go after the mob, and what was a great setup is essentially wasted in the final 15 minutes of the film, among the reeds in the marshes.
This film is entertaining enough to see, but ultimately forgettable, only the rain chase-scene stays with me, nothing else really…
James Gray directed this film as his follow-up film to The Yards, which is a very similar dark type of mobster film.
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