Narc [Region 2] | Dan Leis, Jason Patric

Narc [Region 2] | Dan Leis, Jason Patric | A solid film

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Narc [Region 2]

	Narc [Region 2] Dan Leis, Jason Patric average customer review:based on 111 reviews
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highly recommended

Jittery camera moves and a gray-blue palette make it clear that Narc is a gritty police drama in the tradition of The French Connection and Serpico. Jason Patric (Rush, Your Friends & Neighbors) plays Nick Tellis, a former undercover cop with an accidental death on his conscience, which may be why he's agreed to partner with Henry Oak (Ray Liotta), a lieutenant determined to track down the killers of his former partner. This could all be rote, but the grit sticks: writer-director Joe Carnahan takes a huge leap forward from his Tarentino-wannabe first film, Blood, Guts, Bullets & Octane. The entire cast is excellent; Patric and Liotta give rich, textured performances that make their respective obsessions vivid and sad. Narc could use more of the dark humor that occasionally bursts out, but the movie's drive and energy make it more than a bleak tale of good intentions gone bad. --Bret Fetzer

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Narc

This is one of my favourite films. This again is underated, this for me was an intense film... strong peformances,great story, good music really would recommend it to anyone!

A solid film

I was extremely impressed with this low budget film. The story is tight, the actors are entirely believable and "damaged" and the cinematography is exactly what I would expect from this kind of movie. I also appreciate that the movie wasn't stretched out, it's just over an hour and 40 minutes, which is about perfect.

Underrated Crime Drama

It's been a while since I have seen a good new crime drama so I thought I would bring attention to this little known oldie but goodie. OK, it's not really that old, but it does seem to have gone under the radar, which is a shame, because it really is good. Set in dreary Detroit, two Detectives (Liotta and Patric) are investigating the murder of an undercover cop who happens to be Liotta's ex-partner. Both men have their own personal demons to deal with, and as the case wears on, both men's notions of truth and justice will be put to the test. There's nothing overly complex or cliched about the film and it doesn't try too hard to be profound. It's just a good, realistic, urban police drama with a nice denouement, which seems to be rare these days.

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Modern day crime drama with depth and despair galore

Narc is not your typical run of the mill "cops and robbers" film. A gritty, hard-nosed look into the life and times of an undercover narcotics agent, it explores a variety of themes while never losing direction from the main story. Although the film does not play out to spend too much time in showing you the ropes of being undercover, Jason Patric's performance as Nick Tellis is superb in bringing a dark, desolate personality that holds up for the character he plays quite well. Tellis is brought back onto the case of another "Narc" named Michael Calvess, who perished in the line of duty. Calvess's partner (Lt. Henry Oak) is angry for revenge and as time begins to run out, he pushes Tellis along with what sanity he has left, to the brink before inevitable closing of the investigation. The film does a great job of bringing in some back story for both Calvess's life and his partner's (played by Ray Liotta) mysterious connections, as well as showing some scenes on the home front of what Tellis's family life is going through as he descends back into the madness of his profession after the trauma that he went through the last time things went bad.

The interrogation scene in the garage is raw and gives up some surprising notes, and I felt that this film had enough twists and turns in it without getting out of hand to keep everything balanced within a simple story that invoked themes of right vs. wrong and how warped and confusing the tangled web can get when you are jumping the fence into that other realm. Liotta and Patric both put in stellar performances, and although largely a character driven film, still has plenty of cat and mouse games as well as violence, whether hand to hand or by firearm.

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Gritty cop thriller in vein of The French Connection

All too often, quality movies are in and out of theaters before audiences have a chance to see them, Narc being a perfect example of that. For 18 months, Detroit narcotics detective Nick Tellis has been on suspension after the end result of a chase went horribly wrong. But now, he's being asked back to help out with the case of another murdered undercover narc detective. Tellis is teamed with a close friend of the murdered cop, Henry Oaks, himself a detective who does what he needs to do to get to a suspect, legal or not. As Tellis and Oaks unravel what really happened, with an answer that Tellis never saw coming, his personal life begins to unravel too with his wife and nine-month old son. From the opening chase with a handheld camera to the final revelation in the end, Narc is very realistic, almost like a documentary that shows some police procedure in a murder case. The story never feels fake and really brings the viewer in, all which makes the ending that much more effective. You may have missed it in theaters, but don't miss it on DVD!

In the two leads of Tellis and Oaks are two actors who aren't huge stars, well-known yes, but that helps make the characters more believable. Jason Patric is Nick Tellis, a detective trying to get a paycheck at first but finds himself fully involved in the murder case who threatens to push away his wife with his drive. Ray Liotta matches Patric as Detective Henry Oaks, a veteran cop who has a reputation as a bit of a hothead but doesn't really care how he gets things done. The teaming of Patric and Liotta works perfectly as their partnership develops, and because the two are in almost every scene together, their performances carry the movie. Rapper Busta Rhymes and Richard Chevolleau lead the supporting cast as Darnell and Steeds, two dealers who know more than they're letting on. The rest of the cast includes Chi McBride, Lina Giornofelice, and John Ortiz.

For such a low price, $9.99, the DVD is a steal. The disc includes the widescreen presentation that really takes advantage of the washed out colors that add to the movie's grittiness. A making of feature is broken up into three smaller segements that add up to about 45 minutes. It's a good feature that shows how tough it was for director Joe Carnahan to get the movie made. Also included is a featurette with William Friedkin, director of The French Connection, talking about similarities between the two movies as well as why he enjoyed Narc so much, and to cap it off, a trailer. All around, a very good DVD presentation for a great cop mystery starring Jason Patric and Ray Liotta, check it out!

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