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A look at the film, NARC - apparently a very good film!
Hey folks, Harry here... Generally I dig the hell out of Jason Patrick and Ray Liotta movies. Both of these actors tend to do really good work, even when stuck in awful films. Meanwhile, Joe Carnahan made a bit of a stir a few years back when he made BLOOD, GUTS, BULLETS AND OCTANE and it debuted to quite a bit of buzz at Sundance, personally I wasn't impressed, I felt that movie tried a bit too hard and while it didn't look anywhere near its micro-budget, it certainly wasn't the next 'Res Dogs' as it had been touted to me no less than 15 times before seeing the film. However, having said that, I was curious to see what Mr Carnahan could do with a real budget, and it is nice to hear good word on this, his first film since his Sundance coming out. Here ya go....
Hi Harry,
I watched the Sacramento premiere of the cop movie
Narc, directed by sac native Joe Carnahan tonight. It
was a charity event, and the movies stars Jason
Patrick and Ray Liotta showed up to answer questions
and sign autographs. It was really cool meeting them
although they both seemed extremly tired, Carnahan on
the other hand was very energertic and funny.
As for the movie... IT ROCKED! The basic story is
Liotta's character is a 50ish narc cop whose partner
is murdered mysteriously. Patrick is an undercover cop
who makes a horrible judgement call early in the film
that threatens his job. He is subsequently teamed up
with liotta to solve the murder. Chi mcbride and busta
rhymes also pop up.
Why did i like it? Great acting all around, Liotta is
truly ferocious in his bad guy role. He kinda reminded
me of tony soprano, terrifying in one scene, subdued
in the next. The writing is also good, many different
plot points come together in the end for a twist
ending that when u think about makes more sense then
the other possible explanations.
Carnahan displays a talent for both getting solid
performances from his actors and filming them in
exciting and somewhat unconventenal methods.
A good time was had by all (and for a good cause,
cancer research), and i look forward to Carnahans next
film.
Xero
PS. It seems Carnahan believes tom cruise may have
been the one that convinced paramount to buy the
movie. look for it in wide release in november.
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+ Expand All
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I nearly had a "being first" hat trick. Go Ray Liotta! Jason Patrick? Was that the guy from 'Sleepers'? Yeah, I think so. I didn't like him in that much so I've avoided him. Hmmm.
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Apr 07, 2002 6:25:50 AM CDT
Blood, guts, bullets and octane was a really short tarantino rip
by silenceoffreedom
The dialogue and fast paced style was a direct Reservoir Dogs theft. I don't know, I guess it was alright, but it went by so damn fast, you don't really get attatched to anyone, and at the end, you're like "Well ... whatever, I GUESS that made sense". Whatever.
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Do you mean Jason Patric? That guy from Speed 2? Hardly "good work in an awful film". The film doesn't sound too bad. "Chi mcbride and bust rhymes also pop-up", what, like that annoying casino advert when you reach aicn?
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Howver, it all unravelled after that somewhat dubious twist of fate that allowed Hawke to escape death at the hands of those thugs. I like twists but it helps if they are within the confiens of the story and realistic.
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Gotta claim hard for a fellow Sac-Town native making his mark on the big screen!
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I thought it was going to turn out that Denzel had set the fake rape up earlier on, and all those guys were in on it. That it was just one huge act for Hawke's benefit, especially when Denzel could be heard on the phone earlier telling somebody to make sure the bath was nice and clean. It might of had an element of "The Game" to it, but i think it would have made a more satisfying ending.
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Okay so Speed 2 sucked, but that wasn't Patric's fault. Two great performances by him are in "Your Friends and Neighbors" (he has a really disturbing monologue in there) and in "After Dark, My Sweet" (he plays an ex-boxer who you think is really stupid but...). So don't count him out, he is capable of giving a great performance with the right material.
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I enjoyed the premiere of Narc in Sacramento and found it to be one of the most intense films I have watched in ages, much moreso than Memento. If I had a complaint it was the sound. Either the theater system or the film itself, perhaps a combination of both, led to a muddy sound track that at times I lost dialogue completely. Now my hearing is not that great, but the three others in our party, all of whom hear fine, agreed. Part was the volume was too high, but that only added to the intrinsic distortion. Hopefully before Paramount puts this out to general release they will tweak the sound.
Jason Patric has a bit of his grandfather's (Jackie Gleason) wit when it comes to answering questions. Even though he had been up since before sunrise and was visably tired, he was quick with the one liner. -
Ray Liotta is AWESOME at playing a scumbag. He can be really creepy and just the type of guy you should generally try to avoid in life. Except for in BLOW, he was very touching as the father in that movie. Sometimes he's kind of forced as well... but, didn't Tom Cruise see this film and then give the guy a career or something? I just remember hearing something about that a few years ago. And didn't they write about his experiences in one of those 'I made it! You can't either!' type books? I think it was one about film festivals. I never saw the film, but I remember thinking it sounded like a lot of hype. Hope this film is good... INCIDENTALLY, GO SEE MY FILM 'HARD OF HEARING' at STUDENTFILMS.COM AND REVIEW IT! It'll appear on the main page. It's nothing big, but I'd like people to check it out. The ending is the best part.
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Hoyt's previous good-will pays off another time a few minutes later with convincing the kid to let him into Alonzo's hideaway so he could sneak up on him wo/ being detected. Hoyt sticking to his guns and not allowing himself to be corrupted by Alonzo pays off. The dirty cop had to be so wicked that he got his in the end, and Hoyt was saved from getting his head blown off in the bathtub because he had done his job without an agenda or biases. A well-done, gritty movie becomes much more of a morality play once Hoyt escapes Alonzo's wrath in the bathtub. I think The Shield would have handled Alonzo's written character better (I did really like Alonzo's reaction once Hoyt wouldn't smoke the dope...he couldn't set up Hoyt unless he was high, when before it was portrayed as Hoyt having to earn his respect...Alonzo would have gotten another patsy if Hoyt didn't get high), but Denzel acted his ass off to pull it thru. The whole story depended on him, in true "Denzel in a Bad Movie" form, and once again he came thru. Glad he finally got an Oscar for this, he deserved a few more.
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Don't rent it or buy it. Totally disappointing. It was a complete rip-off of so many other movies which pull this theme off 100 times better. It had regurgitated dialogue (as in...people said the same thing..or ask questions about something already said to stretch the movie out) and it had constant bickering between the two main leads, which got very tiresome very fast and made it, as well, seem as if it was time-filler. These are my opinions, but I found the movie very unlikable and annoying...and that's a rarity for someone like me....and that is MY two cents.
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Apr 07, 2002 2:39:20 PM CDT
ray liotta damn good in my opinion, and yup, training day was no
by exador
I've like ray liotta in just about everything I've seen him in....
there's something about his presence, when he's really on, he just has a wicked vibe about him....
right from the 1st time i'd ever seen him (in a field of dreams as shoeless joe jackson) up to Copland (really like him in that).....................and as for Training Day, i thought it was pretty damn good....a few similarites to other flicks of that genre....there's some ties to 'bad lieutenant' and others, but i thought Denzel really had a great role and was very good....and that whole bathtub set up was great....totally didn't see it coming although my olde brother had hinted at it big time i still had to rewind and look at it again....very nice foreshadowing....
cheers folks exador out....!!! -
Apr 07, 2002 5:13:26 PM CDT
I realised when Hoyt got trapped in the flat that it was set up,
by barrelrider
I thought Training Day was fairly enjoyable, with both leads giving pretty great performances. Glad Denzel won, although my supporting actor choice was Ben Kingsley for his mesmerising performance in Sexy Beast.
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Alonzo intended for Hoyt to die from the very beginning. He knew he needed someone as eager as Hoyt -- someone willing to do just about anything (even smoke some PCP-tainted shit) in order to get in good. Alonzo already had a full crew set up. The only reason he hooked up with Hoyt was because he had that "bad weekend" in Vegas. When it became clear Hoyt wasn't going to do the shit Alonzo wanted him to (i.e., shooting the Scott Glenn character), Alonzo knew he had to cut his losses and just throw Hoyt to the Latino wolves. Anyway ... for the record, I think Training Day was a great fucking movie, but then I have a thing for urban crime dramas so I may be biased. The bathtub scene was sheer fucking genius ... I just about shit my pants.
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And we had about all the shit we could take from little Timmy. He turned 4 of us in during and English exam during the week, so
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Somehow this has turned into a Training Day talkback. So I thought that I would join the fray. Hawke's escape from the bathtub of death was a dubious twist, seemingly manufactured by a lazy screenwriter. How many people live in LA? What are the odds that Hawke saved the cousin of one of the guys that Washington's character lined up to kill him? Chalking this up to dumb luck is just a poor excuse. I would have much rather seen Hawke find an intelligent way out of the problem. Dumb luck won't win any chess matches.
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DAMMIT! Somebody beat me to the NARC advance review to Harry:(
And no, this has nothing to do with the late 80' sultra violent video game of the same name:) Anyways, I also was at the NARC screening. That opening scene has to be one of the most jarring opening sequences ever...reminded me of the fucked up shit in Requiem for A Dream. Anyways, the film had this really neat blue look to it, almost akin to mann, with a nice ambient score. Busta rhymes was pretty cool too. OOh, plus my friend got me into the after party. The highlight was my friend trying to have this strange existential conversation with Liotta, so he was kinda weired out by us from the start. Plus I said my fave films of his were Hannibal and Muppets From Space. Anyways, Joe Carnahan freaking rules, Jason Patric is nice as hell, and sacramento rocks! Just hoping I someday get to go to one of those red carpeted affair premeres one day!
And yeah, NARC ruled!
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