It's funny because only 3 weeks ago I saw "Scarface" for the 1st time and then last week I saw "Traffic" for the 3rd time. And now I see "New Jack City". Out of the three "New Jack City" is the worst, but that by no means implies that it is a bad movie. But just for a fact there aren't too many drug related movies even in the same league as "Scarface" or "Traffic".
In this review I will not use "Traffic" for any comparison because the two films are completely different. But "Scarface" on the otherhand is almost an exact replica of "New Jack City", except it came out 8 years earlier. Both movies are about how a guy starts out on the bottom, works his way to the top and goes overboard falls back down in the drugworld. It's nearly the same movie except you have Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown, instead of Al Pacino as Tony Montana.
The plot in this isn't anything you probably haven't already figured out. Picture "Scarface" except this time there more emphasis on the cops played by Ice - T, Judd Nelson and Mario Van Peebles. But for those who haven't seen either movie here's a short rundown. Nino Brown is a small time hood who along with his partner and best friend Gee Money (Allen Payne, in a role strikingly similar to that of Steven Bauer in "Scarface") gets a tip on something called crack cocaine. Three years later Nino has become the god of the drug world and is above the law. His life is perfect until police officer Stone(Van Peebles) gets Scotty Appleton(Ice - T) and Nick Peretti(Judd Nelson) to head up their own case on Nino. That's the basic plot and you figure out the rest yourself.
One thing that puts "New Jack City" aabove an average gangster movie is the acting. Snipes is excellent(this still stands as the best performance of his career), Ice - T has never been, and considering how many direct-to-video stinkers he's been in recently, and never will be better and Chris Rock explodes onto the screen stealing every scene he's in. Well to be honest every peroformance is great except for Nelson, who in my opinion gave his character to moral centre at all and seemed lost the whole movie.
So comparisons to "Scarface" aside and little problems aside, "New Jack City" is a good movie and a top notch gangster movie. 7/10
In this review I will not use "Traffic" for any comparison because the two films are completely different. But "Scarface" on the otherhand is almost an exact replica of "New Jack City", except it came out 8 years earlier. Both movies are about how a guy starts out on the bottom, works his way to the top and goes overboard falls back down in the drugworld. It's nearly the same movie except you have Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown, instead of Al Pacino as Tony Montana.
The plot in this isn't anything you probably haven't already figured out. Picture "Scarface" except this time there more emphasis on the cops played by Ice - T, Judd Nelson and Mario Van Peebles. But for those who haven't seen either movie here's a short rundown. Nino Brown is a small time hood who along with his partner and best friend Gee Money (Allen Payne, in a role strikingly similar to that of Steven Bauer in "Scarface") gets a tip on something called crack cocaine. Three years later Nino has become the god of the drug world and is above the law. His life is perfect until police officer Stone(Van Peebles) gets Scotty Appleton(Ice - T) and Nick Peretti(Judd Nelson) to head up their own case on Nino. That's the basic plot and you figure out the rest yourself.
One thing that puts "New Jack City" aabove an average gangster movie is the acting. Snipes is excellent(this still stands as the best performance of his career), Ice - T has never been, and considering how many direct-to-video stinkers he's been in recently, and never will be better and Chris Rock explodes onto the screen stealing every scene he's in. Well to be honest every peroformance is great except for Nelson, who in my opinion gave his character to moral centre at all and seemed lost the whole movie.
So comparisons to "Scarface" aside and little problems aside, "New Jack City" is a good movie and a top notch gangster movie. 7/10