Search - New Jack City on DVD

Excellent Inner City Crime Flick

Charles J. Rector | Woodstock, IL United States | 12/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This motion picture is about the crack cocaine epidemic and the devastating impact that it had on life in the inner city. This is a tough and uncompromising movie.

The main character in New Jack City is Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes), the leader of the Cash Money Brothers (CMB) gang that is one of the biggest crack cocaine trafficking outfits in New York City (NYC). Together with his partner Gee Money (Allen Payne), Brown lives a glamorous life of luxury, fast cars and hot chicks. To put it mildly, Brown is a poor role model for inner city youth.

As Brown's CMB empire grows, he becomes ever more arrogant. The CMB takes over an apartment building and evicts the inhabitants, including an elderly World War II veteran. The CMB is becoming big, fat and out of control. The CMB is hell bent on contaminating the NYC inner city scene. Brown even dreams of taking down the Mafia so that the CMB can become the dominant organized crime gang in NYC. Brown initiates action against the Mafia and scores some success. The shootouts between the CMB and the Mafia are very well done.

Eventually, the top brass at the New York Police Department (NYPD) wake up to the CMB menace and resolve to do something about it. Two of its best detectives, Scotty Appleton (Ice-T) and Nick Peretti (Judd Nelson) are assigned to the case. The detecting duo get a big break when they come in contact with a druggie named Pookie (Chris Rock). The detectives put Pookie on the road to recovery and Pookie agrees to infiltrate the CMB for the NYPD.

New Jack City is a most interesting movie. On the surface, it is just another cops and drug dealers movie, but it is really more than that. It is a tough, realistic portrayal of the damage wrought to the inner city by the crack cocaine epidemic. It presents an involving story with a strong anti-drug message. This movie really makes clear just how bad the drug problem is in the inner city and how illegal drugs have ravaged the community.

New Jack City is a well executed movie. It features strong performances by such actors as Ice-T and Wesley Snipes, who have generally not made strong performances on other movies. It has a strong script and an involving plot. It probably should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, yet it was not even nominated for an Oscar in any category. This was because, for all its great points, New Jack City was generally regarded by both the critics and the Hollywood elite as a "black" movie and as such unworthy of being considered as legitimate cinema irregardless of how much money it earned for its releasing studio.

This movie was both entertaining and educational in that it taught this country's youth the dangers of drugs and how it
leads to a person's downfall. The message of this film was plain and simple: Crack cocaine can destroy a person's life and damage the lives of others. If we do not continue to fight the war on drugs, then drugs will continue to destroy our country."

New Jack City, 10 years later.

The Groove | Boston, MA | 10/09/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"10 years ago, Mario Van Peebles released a movie that would launch a new wave in Black cinema and would put then up-and-coming Wesley Snipes on the Hollywood map. Although not without its flaws, "New Jack City" is a highly entertaining film about the so-called war on drugs and drug lords in NYC. Snipes gives a charismatic performance as Nino Brown; props also go to Ict-T and Allen Payne, and Judd Nelson is...well...Judd Nelson. It helps that the film also has a pretty good soundtrack. Although the film seems to glorify the drug scene a bit, and despite some dated outfits and trends (love those flattop haircuts!), this film is overall a keeper!"