We Own the Night

RATED: R for strong violence, drug material, language, some sexual content and brief nudity.
RUNNING TIME: 116 MINUTES
PLOT: New York, 1988: A new breed of narcotics has swept the great city, bringing with it a ferocious crime wave more terrifying than any in recent memory. A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hit men. Together, the brothers will try to prove the NYPD's '80s rallying cry in the war on drugs: We Own the Night.
STARS: Joaquin Phoenix (Bobby Grusinsky), Mark Wahlberg (Joe Grusinsky), Robert Duvall (Burt Grusinsky), Eva Mendes (Amada Juarez).

Gord Burt 2.5 Stars

Set in 1988, We Own the Night starts out full of promise and ends up a competent, semi-profound but ultimately well-worn tale of familial loyalty. Mark Wahlberg is the good brother, a policeman in New York. Joaquin Phoenix is the bad brother, a sleazy nightclub owner whose patrons include the Russian drug lords the police are trying to shut down.

The material is engaging enough and the solid cast also includes Robert Duvall; Eva Mendes is in it too, but adds little. Yet this dramatic crime-thriller never lives up to its potential. In fact, it’s considerably less than the sum of its parts despite much of the film’s inspiration coming from a long tradition of crime dramas like The Godfather, Heat, Force Of Evil, Dirty Harry and the French Connection.

Phoenix has to play both sides to save his brother’s life, going undercover as a police mole despite initial reservations. Writer/director James Gray doesn’t draw out his ethical and moral dilemma long enough to be dramatic or shocking. It’s dropped too soon, which leaves We Own the Night an aimless, predictable soap opera.

Most of the film’s problems have to do with Gray’s uninspired direction. Case in point: a car chase and shootout sequence in a thunderstorm should be thrilling but instead it never really engages our interest. We Own the Night (the title comes from the late-‘80s motto of the NYPD’s street crimes unit) gets sillier and sillier as we move down the quality scale from great to passable to predictable to unbelievable twists that seem ever more improbable.

The characters are all underdeveloped and one-dimensional although the efforts of Phoenix and Wahlberg nearly overcome that problem. Phoenix tries his best to make us care about his character even when the material isn’t there, while the interaction between him and Wahlberg provide the movie’s best moments. Wahlberg and Phoenix are good enough as the cop and the playboy, though given past roles, one wonders what the film would look like if they switched roles.

Erin Harde 3 Stars

Carried by two Hollywood tough guys, Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix, We Own the Night has the short-lived aggressive endurance of a junkie on PCP. The film gets off to an unrestrained, dangerous start, but can’t maintain the high longer than an hour.

Set in New York’s drug-ridden nightclubs in the ‘80s, the story pits two brothers, one a cop and one a club manager, against each other as the war between a drug ring and the NYPD becomes vicious. Normally busting with muscle and machismo in his movies, Walberg’s cop appears meek, even pathetic, next to Phoenix’s sexy Bobby who knows his way around a woman (as we see in the very first scene with Eva Mendes) and gets loaded with the city’s coolest.

But it only takes on attempt on his life to neuter this alpha dog. In a disappointing move by the director, Bobby is absolved of a spine once he and his family become a target of the same men he once called business partners. He’s not even a good informer, completely cracking under the pressure of a wire.

The character is much more appealing when he thinks he’s invincible and lives without a sense of responsibility. Once Bobby becomes a snitch, the film and audience bear the heavy weight of the inevitable, that he or his family will get knocked off by the drug lords who have no respect for the law, and contempt for those who enforce it.

Phoenix and Wahlberg do the best they can with these characters who are all bark and no bite. After being shot, Wahlberg’s Joe crumbles on the job. From any other actor in any other movie, it would be acceptable; in this situation, one expects more heroics and bravery out of this pair, and it doesn’t materialize. Robert Duvall’s character outdoes both of his boys in that regard. This tough old cop knocks them around every chance he gets.

We Own the Night paints a good picture of the nightmare cops faced 20 years ago, but doesn’t give two great talents a chance to own this picture.

30 Days of Night

PLOT: In Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the U.S, the winter sun sets and does not rise for 30 days and nights. From the darkness comes an evil force that strikes terror on the town, and all hope is pinned on a husband-and-wife cop team.

RATED: R for strong horror violence and language.

RUNNING TIME: 113 MINUTES

STARS: Josh Hartnett (Eben Oleson), Melissa George (Stella Oleson), Danny Huston (Marlow), Ben Foster (The Stranger), Mark Rendall (Jake Oleson).

Gord Burt 3.5 Stars

Writer Steve Niles’s and artist Ben Templesmith’s three-issue comic-book series, originally published in 2002, spawned some sequels and now a big-screen adaptation by doing little more than drenching the vampire myth in just a little more gore. For some reason, a key conflict within the vampire ranks doesn’t make the big-screen transition, so the bulk of the drama falls to a stock collection of human characters. The most obvious comparison is the recent Underworld movies, but 30 Days is also lacking the X factor that the lovely Kate Beckinsale brings to the Underworld movies.

Director David Slade does a good job mixing traditional scary surprises with the type of gore, violence and bloodshed modern horror movie fans appreciate, which makes 30 Days Of Night much better than your usual scary movie. Slade develops the vampires into super strong, vicious, bloodthirsty demons so powerful the audience is left to wonder how the common folk of Alaska could ever overcome the siege. These killers move so quickly and decisively, there seems to be no hope for humanity.

Better yet, Slade gives the audience this impression before we ever see the vampires - almost like Spielberg holding back on the first sight of Jaws. While it’s a great start, the film runs into problems when trying to expand a concise, gut-punch of a story into an over-long two-hour narrative, which takes the edge off the material.

But for a movie set in perpetual night, the town’s as brightly lit as any MGM musical, despite the power going out all over. That’s just a nitpicky point as there are much larger problems, chief among them being that the movie’s just not very scary. After the first few scares they become common and nothing new is done to change up the scare tactics.

Josh Hartnett stars as the town’s low-key but resourceful sheriff, who teams up with estranged wife Melissa George and a handful of survivors to survive the 30-day siege and vanquish the overwhelming vampire force. While Hartnett and George make mostly appealing characters, the real star of 30 Days is Danny Huston. As the animalistic leader of the pack, he’s as disturbing as he is compelling, a feral creature with all senses at full capacity.

Erin Harde 2.5 Stars

Interpretations of the vampire have varied greatly in the last hundred years. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Nosferatu to Angel and Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the vampire legend has taken many forms and captivated audiences for several centuries.

What many of those tales have in common is romance and mystery. Dracula is undeniably seductive, and no woman alive could resist a nibble from Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire. Many popular depictions also portray the central vampire as a tragic figure, one with whom the audience should sympathize. And failing that, at the very least vampires have got personality, like those of The Lost Boys.

30 Days of Night offers vampires with none of those qualities. These creatures truly are monsters; they are not sexy, playful, funny or mysterious. They live to feed and torture. Their pre-amble to the kill is not wine and flattery; it’s broken limbs, slashes across the face, and metal rods jammed through stomachs. None of it is necessary but, under the shade of a month’s darkness in Alaska, this coven need not rush through their massacre.

This hearty type of vampire is virtually indestructible and completely merciless. A chilling scene has a young woman walking a barren, bloody street along shouting for help as the vampires begin to close on her from all angles. She pleads with them and with God. The head of the clan amusedly peruses the sky before telling her “no God” and ripping her throat out.

As the sheriff, Josh Hartnett bravely leads a small group of survivors to different hiding spots. The tension is palpable as they get picked off one by one, some making vain attempts at killing the vampires. They also have to take out some of their own, who were bitten and start to turn into vampires. Director David Slade makes a cheap move by turning a little girl, especially considering they can only be killed by decapitation.

This well-timed release will be a Halloween hit for those with a ghoulish appreciation for bloody, violent horrors, but if want to preserve your impression of a more refined, charming vampire, rent Bram Stoker’s Dracula instead.