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New
Jack City, 1991, 101 minutes, Rated R
By Ramona Prioleau
Years after its theatrical release, New Jack City maintains its
relevance as a well-produced cautionary tale about the dead end that
awaits the pursuer of ill-gotten gains. Wesley Snipes, as drug kingpin
Nino Brown, paints an all-encompassing portrait of unflinching greed
and self-absorption. Filmed in Harlem, New York with the flair
reflective of the period, New Jack City captures the devastation
wrought by the late 1980's crack cocaine epidemic that turned prom
queens into fiends and once vibrant communities into war zones.
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A career criminal and low level
hustler, Nino Brown manages a cadre of street dealers that push
powder cocaine on street corners and in clubs. After he realizes the
potential consumer demand for coke processed into a soft
"rock" form easy for smoking, Nino starts a street war to
expand his turf and builds a large scale processing and distribution
network operated from a housing complex. But success transforms Nino
from a leader in the field to a distant general fixated on his own
perceived greatness.
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What saves New Jack City from disintegrating into a
film that glorifies a life of crime is the film's look at the
underbelly of drug addiction and its secondary focus on the
unconventional police enforcement efforts to infiltrate and destroy
Nino Brown's criminal consortium know as the Cash Money Brothers.
Leading the undercover squad is Scotty Appleton (Ice T in his debut
performance), a dreadlocked cop with a penchant for taking extreme
risks to get results. Although not nearly as egomaniacal as Nino,
Scotty is fearless in the pursuit of his suspect and is a worthy
adversary for the ruthless kingpin.
Mario Van Peebles directs New Jack City's slickly
packaged organized crime tale that he makes distinctive by layering
the narrative with edgy opening stunts, asymmetrically angled shots,
clever montages, period specific costuming and hairstyling as well as
a pulsating soundtrack of hip hop, pop and R&B tunes.
The film endures because of its authentic character
studies, top-notch acting, the ripped-from-the-headlines plot
emblematic of the crack trade in New York City and pointed dialogue
that punctuates scene after scene.
M
September 2005
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