Lee Eisenberg Wesley Snipes got two of his most important roles in 1991. In Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" he played a man in a relationship with a white woman, causing strife in both communities. In Mario Van Peebles's "New Jack City", he played a drug lord. The movie sort of plays with the audience: on the one hand we know that crack devastated the black community (and the authorities used it as an excuse to imprison large numbers of black men, leaving two generations of black youth fatherless). But at the same time, the movie makes you root for Snipes's ruthless Nino as he rises to power. It's sort of like "The Godfather" in that sense.A message at the end of the movie notes that the drug epidemic will continue unless we see action instead of empty slogans. Only in the past few years have we started to see states dial down the so-called War on Drugs, and some have even legalized recreational marijuana. It's only now, after we've seen entire neighborhoods ruined and countries destabilized, that we've started taking a common-sense approach.Anyway, it's not a masterpiece, but still worth seeing. The rest of the cast includes Van Peebles, Ice-T, Judd Nelson, Chris Rock, Vanessa Williams and Bill Cobbs.

jimbo-53-186511 Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes)is a drug lord who takes over a city by using the Carter Building to produce and sell crack cocaine. Brown and his gang are making $1,000,000 a week and have almost total control of the city. In order to bring Nino down, streetwise cop Scotty (Ice-T) attempts to infiltrate Nino and his gang by sending in reformed crack addict Pookie (Chris Rock). When this attempt fails, Scotty finds he must go undercover himself in an attempt to bring Nino and his operation down.Director Mario Van Peebles directs the film with some competency - it has a certain style about it and the look and the feel of the film certainly feel authentic. It's gritty, grimy and brutal which gives a semi satisfying feel to it. Sadly where New Jack City really falls apart is when you take away all the gloss and the polish and look at the bare bones of the product.The film puts most of its focus on Nino Brown which is fine, but it doesn't afford him much development turning what should be a complex drug-lord into a rather simplistic character.I would have preferred it if Brown was fleshed out a bit and made a bit more interesting which at least would have made the story a bit more involving. Snipes throws himself into the role and his work here is admirable and he is fun to watch, but sometimes he overplays the role making him look like a caricature rather than an actual character or person we can connect with. Rock plays the role of an ex-crack addict in a mix of comedy and drama which doesn't entirely work, but Rock is OK here. Ice T is good here mixing sarcasm and tough-talking to good effect.Aside from all of the above I also found the story a little weak and it perhaps wouldn't have hurt to explore the general drug-culture and to give Nino's big rivals a little more focus. This not only would have fleshed the story out more, but it probably would have made it a bit more involving. The pace is also a little lethargic and made long stretches of the film a bit boring.In summary then the film is stylish, gritty and brutal, but the story is rather pedestrian lacking in both focus and depth. It gets its point across in the end (in a final scene that admittedly took me by surprise) and therefore gets an extra star for that alone. New Jack City certainly has its moments, but for me it was weak in far too many areas for it to even achieve a passable score.

seymourblack-1 The late-1980s crack epidemic that had such a huge impact on many of the impoverished neighbourhoods of New York City created a new breed of gangster whose rise and fall followed the same trajectory that had been experienced by their more famous predecessors. The exploits of such men provide great material for movies but what distinguishes "New Jack City" from numerous other similar stories is the way that it balances all its elements so effectively. Its brisk pace and well-choreographed action sequences deliver plenty of excitement but the time devoted to character development and articulating its anti-drugs message also adds depth and weight to the whole undertaking. A similarly good balance is achieved in the way that the activities of the police and the criminals are presented.When crack cocaine starts to hit the streets of New York City, drug dealer Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) is quick to recognise its potential and takes over an apartment building called "The Carter" which he converts into a crack factory with additional facilities for the sale and consumption of the product. The great popularity of crack and the ruthless way in which Nino eliminates his competitors soon brings him so much success that he becomes the city's leading drug lord and the police assemble a small team of undercover cops to bring Nino and his gang (known as the "Cash Money Brothers") to justice.Detective Stone (Mario Van Peebles), who assembles the special police unit, recognises the need to use officers who are streetwise and understand the mindset of the gangsters they're pursuing and so appoints maverick cops Scotty Appleton (Ice T) and Nick Peretti (Judd Nelson) who dislike each other but also have strong personal reasons for wanting to take Nino and his gang down. Scotty initially recruits an ex-crack addict called "Pookie" (Chris Rock) to infiltrate Nino's operation and he gathers some useful information before his proximity to so much crack leads him back into addiction and the end of his involvement in the police unit's work.Shortly after this set-back, Detective Stone disbands the special police team but Scotty decides to carry on the work and together with Nick, promotes distrust between Nino and his right-hand-man Gee Money (Allen Payne) as they gradually gather the evidence they need to bring down Nino who has now become so powerful that he thinks he's untouchable.Wesley Snipes is terrific as the despicable Nino who's smart, recognises the value of using conventional business practices and always has his finger on the pulse of what's going on around him. Additionally, however, he's also a cruel, violent megalomaniac who betrays three of the people who are closest to him and have supported him during his rise to power. The quality of the acting in this movie is consistently good but Chris Rock stands out as the jittery youngster (Pookie) who's completely out of his depth and Ice T is a great choice for his role as Scotty.The dialogue in "New Jack City" is sharp and realistic throughout and succinct in the way that it makes certain observations. It's rare for a movie of this type with so many characters to be able to deliver its story with so much punch, balance and clarity but that's exactly what it does and explains why it leaves such a lasting and favourable impression.

Dan Ashley (DanLives1980) At the beginning of the 1990's during the emergence of a new African-American Hip-Hop and Gangster Rap culture, the film world was hot on its heels as fresh talents emerged. Audiences were witnessing an upheaval of social politics and being informed of the stark realities Hollywood filmmakers had so far avoided. Directors such as Spike Lee, John Singleton and Albert & Allen Hughes introduced the world to the American ghettos with outstanding moral dramas such as 'Boyz N The Hood', 'Do The Right Thing' and 'Menace II Society'.Notably there were also veteran movie directors who seemed keen to capitalise on the gritty urban realism that Hollywood seemed to have shied away from since the crime dramas of the '70's. Abel Ferrara's exploitation flicks 'Bad Lieutenant' and 'King Of New York' reintroduced art-house audiences to the mean streets and ghettos of the Big Apple and even Walter Hill's Baltimore-based 'Trespass', a white man vs. black crime syndicate crime thriller made a nightmarish caricature of the Hood.Standing firmly in between reality and fantasy was Mario Van Peebles' 'New Jack City', which for its pains has been met with divided opinion ever since its release in 1991. Approaching the subject of wealth, guns and drugs cultures' effects on East Coast America from the standpoint of historic cinema works such as Scarface and The Untouchables, 'New Jack' tells the tale of a swaggering petty crook's rise from the streets to infamy by exploiting the poor people on the streets and getting them hooked on the newest, most addictive and dangerous drug available.Taking a beating as crime is on a steady rise, Stone and Park are put on the case with the intentions of bringing down the practically untouchable Nino Brown and their best chance is through Scotty Appleton, who has been chasing Brown for a long time already. Put on the streets with mismatched gun-toting basket-case detective Nick Peretti, it seems that the black cop/white cop alliance could be doomed from the start as racial tensions are clear to see.As the cops fail miserably in their attempts to bring down the street-level drug pusher Kingpin, Brown's life goes from promising to priceless as not even the mafia seem able to touch him but soon betrayal within the ranks seems evident and eventually his own American Dream begins to deteriorate, giving the cops a chance to catch him off guard.Yes, 'New Jack City' does hint sometimes heavily at other classic gangster films but it doesn't steal plot and by no means is this an exploitation film. Mario Van Peebles, previously an actor and director for television, not only captured the bleak and dying New York in the days when Hell's Kitchen and Wall Street were addicted to the same class-A drugs, he provided a wisdom and intellect that became increasingly rare in crime dramas beyond that point, even in his own movies.'New Jack City' is a hip film with contrasts between the bleakness of reality and the colour of the times, richly textured with some of the best soundtracks of the era. It boasts a cast that has achieved great status in the '80's and then some that have gone on to varying levels of greatness. Wesley Snipes, Mario Van Peebles, Ice T, Judd Nelson, Bill Nunn, Bill Cobbs and a young Chris Rock make for a crime drama with admirable range. The only problem with some viewers being that it sometimes feels more like a television drama than an actual movie, but that has never bothered me since 'New Jack' delivers on so many levels, providing chills with both drama and action.I'd recommend this film if you've a fan of Wesley Snipes as the villain, which he's done successfully on numerous occasions because he steals the show so often with his fine performance of the egotistical and cocky Nino Brown. But more so if you just want to add to your collection of classic urban crime thrillers because this is nothing short of just that!