New Jack City

This is one great movie, but the thing that really made it special was Wesley Snipes portrayal of a totally despicable character in Nino Brown. He didn't portray Nino as the stereotypical drug dealer. Instead he portrayed Nino as a highly intelligent man who you wonder what would have happened if he had put his intelligence to more productive pursuits. Also, Ice-T wasn't bad in his first major role and you can see how much he has improved by watching Law and Order: SVU.

This is not your typical movie about the drug culture.

New Jack City is from is probably an example of an early 90's blaxpilotian flick which is straight up with other greats like Boyz'n'Hood. However this focus's on more of the 1980's era when the crack cocaine problem broke out onto the streets on New York City. The movie is brilliant because unlike most gangster or mafia flicks which almost portrait a hedonistic view , New Jack City is very urban and down to earth . The film waste no time breaking into action with no OTT clichés which we have all gotten used to seeing. The script was great with a lot sharp twists and turns. Ice T performance was certainly note worthy and it is easy to see how he would go onto play Law and Order , although I felt there were some stereotypical 'black cop' moments in his performance which I am afraid I just did not by and his partner did not really do much apart pass sarcasm and comes up with probably one good idea in the movie. Having said that the star of the show was truly Wesley Snipes because truly without him this movie would have been nothing , although I am aware that he models him-self after Tony Montana in certain aspects he was actually basing his performance on a real life gangster , and it was a pleasure to see him on screen because he was not portraying a typical hood rat! Instead we have got a person who almost reminds one of Al Capone with his untouchable attitude but at the same time is very intelligent! One might even be charmed or might find him-self agreeing with the stuff he comes out with but Snipes does a masterful job of showing us how evil this man really is although with Robin Hood and his Merry men crew also it note checking out Chris Rocks performance although he was added for humour he did not shy away from the dangers of crack. The film only faulted with a few minor things like the ending which probably everyone saw coming however have said that , New Jack City was from time when I was growing up where the word 'cool' was at an all time high with wacky track-suits and hair cuts but the rap music still has not lost its shine along with a very sharp anti-drugs message. I would recommend this one to fans of blaxpoltation,Law and Order and also gangster flicks or just for Snipes performance alone as you will watch one man who exploits the misery of others as a business opportunity all in the name of the American Way!

NEW JACK CITY : 8.6 OUT OF 10

'You gotta rob to be rich in the Reagan Era!' - Nino Brown (played by Wesley Snipes)

20 years after his father, Melvin Van Peebles, had made a revolutionary film called Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song, Mario Van Peebles would direct something of a classic himself with New Jack City. He plays the superior officer of a detective played by rapper Ice-T who we find out has personal reasons for wanting the drug dealer Nino Brown, played by Wesley Snipes, dead. Assisting him is partner Judd Nelson and a former user played by Chris Rock before he joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live". While Rock is better known as a comedian, he gives a fine dramatic performance here. Of course, it's Snipes who gets the lion's share of the acting highlights especially when his character's on trial. While it seems initially the drug lifestyle is glamorous here, it does show eventually that crime doesn't pay. So on that note, New Jack City gets a high recommendation from me. P.S. While I managed to watch this on YouTube, some parts were missing so I checked the Italian upload on the site to watch what I missed and I managed to understand what was going on despite the Italian dubbing.

Nice thriller stars Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes), he is an up-and-coming drug pusher. His brother and right-hand-man, Gee Money (Allen Payne) introduces Nino to a new drug: freebased "crack" cocaine . Ruthless Nino Brown lords it over a New York neighbourhood with an empire built on crack and violence. He and Gee and Duh Man (Bill Nunn) go about getting cooperation through violence and coercion, while they take the poor neighborhoods of New York by storm. The crime lord ascends to power and becomes megalomaniacal while a maverick police team vows to stop him. Detective Stone (Mario Van Peebles) wants to bring Nino to justice, but no one on the police force is crazy enough to go against Nino. Stone decides to call in Scotty Appleton (Ice-T), a plain clothes cop who is currently serving a suspension for shooting an unarmed suspect who ran during a failed drug deal. Scotty is a disenchanted streetwise African-American officer of the law who's convinced by Stone to infiltrate Nino's organization, with the help of another burned-out cop, Nick Paretti (Judd Nelson). It was a time that there was a new gangster in.........They're a new breed of gangster !. The new public enemy !. The new family of crime !. Where survival depends on friends, trust and power... !An organized crime family out to run this city is up against cops who knows its streets !.

New Jack City (1991) is presented with punch and precision, being efficiently shot. This is a very violent, but crisp and cleanly made narcotics thriller. Just say no ghetto-melodrama but an action movie with thrills, intrigue, shoot'em up, suspenseful, and lots of violence. Depicting a slight study of drug proliferation, violent gangs and its effects on poor neighborhoods. The film pays lip service to social analysis while delighting paraphernalia of action and violence. As such, it's a superior example of what used to be called blaxploitation, with Mario Van Peebles piling on corruption and carnage for all he's worth. Powerful acting for the always versatil Wesley Snipes as wealthy Harlem drug lord sought by rebels cops Ice-T, Mario Van Peebles and Judd Nelson. Fine playing all around otherwise, los of action and strong dialogue you can hear, other familiar secondary actors include the following: Chris Rock, Michael Michele, Bill Nunn, Russell Wong, Bill Cobbs, Christopher Williams, Vanessa Williams, Tracy Camilla Johns, Nick Ashford, Thalmus Rasulala, John Aprea and several others.

It contains an adequate musical score fitting to enviroment from Michael Colombier and songs from Johnny Hill, 2 Live crew, Ice-T and others. Likewise, an atmospheric and evocative cinematography by Francis Kenny. Nicely put together in an old fashioned style by Mario Van Peebles who also plays one of his features roles. Mario is son of director Melvin Van Peebles and German actress Maria Marx. He's a known actor and filmmaker. His movie debut came when he was 12 in his father's 1971 film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Mario has his own movie production company named "MVP Filmz". He has directed a number of films, both, TV and cinema , such as: ¨Armed, Superstition, USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, Renegades, Road to redemption, We the party, Boss, All Things Fall Apart, Panther, Wiseguys, Hard Luck, Love kills¨, among others. New Jack City(1991) rating: 6.5/10. Nothing new here but incisively made.

This movie was a surprise. I remember Mario van Peeble's father's "Watermelon Man", an amusing comedy that turns anti-white about half-way through and winds up rather a racist tract. It's almost a convention in movies about African-Americans who seem destructive to themselves or others that they are turned on to dope by white guys. Or, if they retain their rectitude, it's the white guys that are at the head of the horde of local pushers. Of course white women flock to the heroes, etc. We've seen it hundreds of times. But this one is different. The majority of performers are African-Americans, both the cops and the bad guys, neither of them perfect in their goodness or their evil. The characters seem to choose their own destinies for a change. Wesley Snipes is not given a loving trophy blonde. There is a token white cop, Judd Nelson, who was my supporting player in "From the Hip," an extraordinarily good film itself, who is permitted to say, "It's not a black thing. It's not a white thing." Crack is the problem here, not race. We're all in this together, which, in these days, is a pretty progressive statement. It's strictly a genre film. There is craftsmanship in it, if no noticeable attempt at depth, but it's well and stylishly done too. Van Peebles knows how to place the camera and when to cut. The performances are excellent for a film of this type. Snipes especially is a fine physical actor. It winds up with the expected shootout in an empty warehouse or factory. I'd kind of put off seeing this on TV, afraid of wincing through the prejudices I anticipated being expressed, and I was pleasantly surprised to find them completely absent here.