Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Joaquin Phoenix is the ambitious night club owner who befriends all sorts of characters, some shady. His brother, Mark Wahlberg, is a principled captain in the NYPD, and their father, Robert Duval, is an even higher echelon type of cop -- Deputy Commissioner or Chief Executive Assistant Deputy of Commissioners and Non-Commissioners, or something. His beribboned uniform indicates that if he were in the Army he'd be a brigadier general, and in the Navy, a commodore except that the Navy no longer has such a rank. Naturally, Pop is prouder of his son the police officer, coming as he does from the kind of family that believes the fetus isn't viable until it graduates from the police academy.Brother is pitted against brother but not for long. The heavies are all Russians. When a big time drug dealer, a really slimy type that wears his hair in an exotic do and never blinks, played by the Ukranian Alex Veadov, approaches Phoenix with an offer to sample his product and then spread the word about its quality among his night club patrons, Phoenix spills the beans at once to the cops. Phoenix is drafted as a conditional member of the NYPD and wears a wire to a meeting with Veadov. His true allegiance is uncovered by the heavily armed Russians and a shoot out follows.There are other shoot outs, betrayals, and romantic squabbles in which Phoenix's girl friend objects to his becoming a police officer for the same reason that every other cop's girl friend in every other cop or military movie has objected to her man's job. The lines usually come out something like, "How do you think I feel, waiting for you every night, wondering if you're alive or lying dead in some alley (or battlefield)?" When John Wayne played a military man he constantly had these conflicts with his women and he always won, as Phoenix does here.There have been lots of cop movies since American cities were turned upside down in the late 1960s and "Dirty Harry" incorporated all our fears of urban violence and serial killers. Most were shackled to action movie conventions. A bop on the head rendered a character unconscious for just as long as the script required. A sock on the jaw achieved the same effect. Not here, though. The violence is brutal but believable and done, if it can be said, with taste by writer/director James Gray.Take the requisite car chase for example. "Bullitt" provided the holotype -- cars screeching at high speed around corners, shots exchanged, one car apparently trying to bump the other off the road, the shrieking and scattering of pedestrians and all that. Not here. The car chase is filmed with some originality. It takes place mostly on a single highway in New York City in a blinding rain. The point of view is limited almost exclusively to Phoenix, the driver of a car being peppered with slugs from the Russian mobsters. Phoenix is not angry. He's screaming because he's scared to death and because the rain is so heavy he can barely make out what's going on around him, and that's not to mention the dead guy in the suicide seat. The chase scene breaks most of the usual narrative conventions.I'm not going to give Gray too many bonus points because he lapses into the cliché of the wobbling, hand-held camera during the final shoot out. I suppose it's designed to add a touch of authenticity but all it does is confuse and distract a viewer, interfering with the suspension of our disbelief. A camera that shakes crazily only reminds us that we're watching a movie.But I have to say that in general this is a notch above the usual cop/action movie. There have been some neatly structured films in the genre -- "Serpico" and "Prince of the City", for instance. James Gray's movie is among the few that reflect the kind of thought and planning that requires skill and even artistry. Nice job.

****Spoilers***Spoilers*****Don't Bother Watching This Movie!!!First of all there was absolutely no reason for this to be a period piece so why bother? The listening device wasn't anything like they had in 1988 and I'm sure there were other things that didn't exist back then. Next thing is that this just wasn't a very good story. The main plot twist hinged on nothing. The Russians try to kill a cop and the very next day they talk to someone they barely know about it and then they ask him if he wants to go see their drug stash house. Really? And then he's made some sort of cop and then he has a gun? Is it me or is that just stupid? The longer you watch it the stupider it gets.This deserves one star because it wasted the potential of everyone involved. What terrible writing! Epically bad and contrived and there wasn't a decent action scene in the entire film.

I came across this flick due it's title. Never heard of it I thought it was going to be a horror but what a big surprise it was. I found it an excellent flick with great performances by Robert Duvall (Burt Grusinsky) and Joaquin Phoenix (Bobby Green). I didn't had any problem with the story although it's a bit weird that a mobster can become a copper. A snitch I can take but this. But somehow I didn't had a problem with it because it fits in the story itself. The surprise was for me the effects used which were excellent and even gory on some parts (headshot). Eva Mendes (Amada) doesn't have a great part but fits in well with her sexy vibes and even a bit of nudity. Mark Wahlberg (Joseph) has a smaller part but does fine what he has to do.Surprisingly good mobster flick that never bored me for a minute.Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

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.