A sombre, intelligent, feeling crime drama set in a working-class New York characterised by striving and shabbiness.
Comment
12/14/07
We Own The Night (2007)
55
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:137
Fresh:75
Rotten:62
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Bland characters, clichéd dialogue and rickety plotting ensure We Own The Night never lives up to its potential.
Theatrical Release:14-12-2007
Synopsis: Director James Gray (THE YARDS) posits two distinctly different brothers--Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) and Bobby Grusinsky (Joaquin Phoenix)--as the central characters in this crime-infested thriller.... [More]
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Robert Duvall
Director: James Gray
Reviews for We Own The Night
The stand-out set piece is an agonising car chase in the rain, replacing the full-throttle showmanship of the Bourne series with a foot on the brake, a shotgun pointing out of the adjacent car, and a series of tight close-ups on the terrified Phoenix.
12/14/07
Top CriticOffers little that Scorsese doesn’t offer with more élan and wit.
12/14/07
It is a little cumbersome with plenty of macho-sentimentalism, and the ending is frankly contrived. But go and see it for the car chase.
12/14/07
Top CriticStylishly directed by James Gray, this dark film does a great job portraying the violent gang scene of 1980s New York. More sophisticated than most cop flicks.
12/14/07
The always charismatic Phoenix is the highlight; he carries the film, rising above the occasionally uninspired dialogue and plotting to give a powerhouse turn as a man caught between ambition and duty.
12/14/07
Top CriticQuality actors Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall do their best to breathe life into a deeply average cop thriller/family drama.
12/14/07
A grown-up thriller about morality and the consequences of choice, We Own The Night harks back to an earlier era. A cast of heavy-hitters give it all a solid, polished sheen.
12/14/07
Top CriticHeartfelt performances from all the leads, certainly. Top 80s tunes and a thrilling car chase in the pouring rain.
12/13/07
Top CriticThe kind of movie you feel you’ve seen before when you’re watching it for the first time, Gray’s latest never once surprises. But it’s intelligent and well-crafted enough to make you prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt.
12/13/07
A desperate violence and urgency spills out in the film’s flash-point set-pieces – not least a sensational car chase, shot through a windscreen, hammering rain and a blur of fear.
12/13/07
Top CriticThis just can’t compete in an arena with the likes of The Departed - which at least makes a point of its contrived storyline - let alone the high watermark set for cops vs. drugs drama by the TV series The Wire.
12/13/07
Top CriticTawdry, pulpy, nuts-and-bolts cop thriller.
12/13/07
ngaging, impressively directed crime thriller with a sharply written script and strong performances from its three leads.
12/13/07
As a whole, the film feels both too earnest and overly simplistic in its approach to the various moral dilemmas.
10/27/07
It’s a solid, if unremarkable piece of storytelling.
06/02/07
Top CriticClick to read the article
05/29/07
Gray assumes rather than dramatizes the depths of his characters, scanning for gravitas where there are only rickety clichés
08/27/09
Click to read the article
10/18/08
Although We Own the Night is never as suspenseful as it wants to be and can be a little formulaic, it never comes close to being boring, and that's something you can't say too often about movies these days.
07/22/08
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