Narc Movie Review:


If you are looking for a gritty violent police crime drama then Narc just might be for you. Starring Jason Patric as suspended Detroit undercover narcotic officer Nick Tellis pushed into investigating a killing of another undercover drug cop who was gunned down while on duty.

He is teamed up with Henry Oak (Ray Liotta), the murdered officers partner and together they try and solve the case. Their personalities in the film are polar opposites. Henry is a short-tempered cop who bends all the rules and then some when it comes to police work while Nick is more by the book and much slower to anger.

As they shake down suspects and get closer to the truth, the seedy crime infested drug world they have to deal with takes them on a very twisted journey.

To tell their story, writer director Joe Carnahan uses a lot of jump cuts and quick cuts that at times mesmerize you but also irritate.

With intense performances especially from Liotta, Narc has a very dark and edgy feel to it but cant escape its typical cop gone bad routine you have seen many times before.

The slow pacing probably will have you twisting and turning in your seat as you wait for the action to take place.

It is not an uplifting film in any way and not for the faint at heart. If you expect lots of brutality and foul language, then you wont be disappointed in that department.

Filled with bleak and violent images that might give some of you nightmares, this movie does shock you at times. Narc has a certain unnerving quality to it that that pulls you in for brief moments of excitement that likely will grab you hard.

The film is pretty bleak with characters that are scarred to such an extent that perhaps only a miracle can heal them. It is the kind of film that plays it down and dirty in the way it presents the ugly interactions between the police and the criminal drug elements of society.

For you people who enjoy urban cop stories that are morbid and at times gruesome, Narc will rattle your cage a bit while not offering any new tricks along the way.

3.5 Stars

Gil Benzeevi

Needles, blood-shot eyes, cops with guns, straws of white powder and the destruction of good decent hopeful lives are the kinds of things that "narcotics" officers deal with on a daily basis. Sometimes just watching it for two hours can be a life-changing experience.

In the new movie NARC, we descend back into that world which Hollywood has explored in memorable films such as "Deep Cover", "Rush" and even the classic "French Connection". In the new film, Jason Patric ("Rush") plays Nick Tellis, a disgraced narcotics officer who is reluctantly pulled into the murder investigation of a fellow undercover officer. For the investigation, Tellis is teamed with a friend of the deceased cop, Sgt. Henry Oak (Ray Liotta). Oak is a loose-cannon and one mistake away from destroying his career. Can these two keep their own problems bottled up long enough to solve the case? Or will they turn on each other like starving dogs? Furthermore, what did happen to the dead cop?

Narc opens with a harrowing home-video camera chase, which leaves three people dead and Patric’s character shattered. This scene is utterly brilliant even if it’s hard to watch. We are pulled kicking and screaming into the ensuing action. This raw aspect of the film is felt a lot throughout. Patric as an actor seems to soar in grittier dramas where his characters are rattled by the world around him.

I really do feel that Patric was playing the same character he played in "Rush" except that his tormented wife, played by Krista Bridges, is a whole new aspect. Are we swept up in this movie more if we do remember Patric in ?Rush"?

The scenes involving Patric and new-comer Krista Bridges are so disturbing that they shadow-box your nerves and emotions into check. Bridges is so good that in a lot of her screen-time with Patric, she out acts the man.

There has been a lot of talk about the performance of Ray Liotta in this movie. He has gained some poundage and wields a mean shotgun. But I found that he is playing the same mean "ready-pop" guy he has always played. Sure his fury is intensified and the script does a wonderful job of fleshing out Oaks but haven’t we seen Liotta play this guy before. It could have been a real twist if Liotta played the Patric character. Now that would be something new.

I really found myself liking Narc a lot more after I left the theatre then I did experiencing it. It took a while for the images and the trick ending to sink in for me. Narc does deserve to mentioned in the same breath as other great drug-undercover movies.

(4 of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of Narc and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.