We Own the Night (2007)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Ok here goes. With no decent movies sheduled for tonight on the tv I decided to pilfer through my DVD collection for something I've maybe missed..I found "we own the night". I found the first 40 mins or so pretty good some great acting with Phoenix, especially the scene in the diner where you the audience know he knows but he can't say anything and secondly the scene where he enters the stash house with the sack over his head was genuinly tense even my heart was pounding. Although no large scale trafficker would make such a rookie mistake as to bring someone in on such a large scale operation. The car chase was pretty cool too, no ronin, but original. After that things start to get a bit far fetched, eg Phoenix becoming a cop, the script seemed to go downhill a bit too. Duvall was good as always, kind of like his "Martin Pendergast" character from falling down, mark whalberg was stale as always, Eva mendes played Phoenix' girlfriend, a party girl caught up in a world she didn't ask for and not mentally tough enough to be there. Phoenix was awesome in bits of this movie really top drawer acting at times. Give this movie a chance definatly although there was times I found myself shouting "what!" In disbelief at the plot...but still, killed 2 hours of a Sunday night in a pretty cool fashion.

You wouldn't have thought that a movie with Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Robert Duvall and even Eva Mendes could actually produce such impassioned and wooden performances. But the writing and the plot are just so bad I can forgive them for never rising to any level even approximating competence. In order to revive themselves they resort to pantomime-like (couldn't use a real word because this review doesn't have a decent dictionary) over-acting but then as Gray wrote and directed this stiff melodrama, again forgiveness for the actors. Thank god I didn't pay money for this. I felt ripped off even investing 2 hours of my time in this clichéd nothingness. And now I have to blah the rest of this to fill out the stupid ten line minimum when I could have reviewed (there's that inadequate IMDb dictionary making me change a perfectly complete word again) it in two damn words... "It's bad", or even just one... "BAD"

It's 1988 Brooklyn. Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) runs a lavish nightclub El Caribe and is in business with questionable characters. Joe Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg) follow his father Burt (Robert Duvall) into the family business policeman. Bobby is actually his brother using his mother's maiden name. Only his girlfriend Amada Juarez (Eva Mendes) knows his secret. Joe and Burt ask him to help spy on the Russians for narcotics but he refuses. After they raid Bobby's club, Joe gets shot. It gets more and more dangerous as things spiral out of control.This is an amazing cast and they all do a good job. This should be great but it's merely good enough. It has a gritty feel but somehow not realistic. Something is missing that I have to put down to writer/director James Gray. It has more the feel of the 70s like an older Godfather movie especially with the music selection. It may be the yellow tint on everything or the washed out colors. It throws me off with the realism of the movie. Even the subtitles reminds me of The Godfather. It's suppose to be late 80s and I don't get that sense. Joaquin does his usual great work. Mark Wahlberg matches him. This should have been such a great movie.

We Own the Night is a gritty cop drama featuring top-notch performances by Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix as two brothers on different sides of the law. This is not the best cop film, but it is very entertaining. This movie was made for pure pleasure and it delivers big on that statement.This film is about Bobby Green who is a nightclub owner that deals with drugs. His brother and father are both Captain and Chief of the NYPD. Now Green must save his family from Russian hit men before they get exposed.As I said previously, Wahlberg and Phoenix delivered top-notch performances. Eva Mendes of course is smoking hot and Robert Duvall still has his acting mojo as he gets older.Overall, this is a great cop film dealing with 1980's NYC crime. I would definitely give this film a chance. I rate this film 9/10.