For a while now, I'd been hearing about this new writer/director who's been taking the film world by storm. His name is Joe Carnahan, and his movie "Narc" has been getting lotsa acclaim doing the film festival circuit. Tom Cruise saw it, loved it, and convinced Paramount Pictures to buy it. Before I saw "Narc," I figured I'd check out earlier work from Joe Carnahan. "Narc" was his second film, his first was a movie called "Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane," which was supposedly shot in 13 days on 16mm film for $8000. I went on over to the NetFlix web site (NetFlix rules), placed my order to rent, and after a few days, I got "Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane" DVD. I thought the movie was pretty good. Not great, but good. My problem was that it seemed too much like I was watching a student film, and it was yet another independent film that was a dark comedy with quirky bad guys, shootouts, clever dialogue... that whole deal. I kinda liked it, but I thought to myself that if "Narc" was like that, I wouldn't understand what the fuss was about. Well, I finally saw "Narc," and yeah, I can definitely see what the fuss is about. It's a really good movie, and I liked it a lot.
Checking out the "Narc" web site, I found out that it was inspired by "The Thin Blue Line," a critically acclaimed documentary about the actual killing of a Dallas police officer in 1976. Carnahan's first attempt was with "Gun Point," a short film that he made in 1994. He was still fascinated by the story, though, so he decided to expand the 30-minute short into a feature film. He also wanted to go deeper into what goes on in a murder investigation. Now I'm really curious about that short film, "Gun Point." Hopefully it'll be included in the DVD release of "Narc."
"Narc" looks similar to "8 Mile" in that it's a gritty film set in Detroit, and the picture has a blue hue to it. Actually, I remember when I saw the great movie, "Out of Sight," the scenes set in Miami were colorful, but the scenes set in Detroit also had a blue hue. I've been to Detroit, and I don't remember it being blue. I don't know what the deal is with filmmakers making it blue. Anyhow, the blue thing is the only similarity that "Narc" has to "8 Mile" and especially "Out of Sight." "Narc" is a very violent, gritty film with an opening scene that had my jaw on the floor. The opening scene is definitely an attention grabber. The way the blood pours outta that body... wow. As a director, Joe Carnahan pulls no punches.
The two leads are excellent. They are two actors of great intensity, Jason Patric (he was in the awesome movie, "Your Friends and Neighbors," but he was also the star of the disastrous "Speed 2: Cruise Control") and Ray Liotta (who was so good in "Cop Land" and "GoodFellas"). They both play undercover narcotics detectives, and they're great. And scary. Don't assume that this is like those buddy cop movies with funny moments of the two guys bickering. "Narc" is nothing like that. It's a grim, depressing movie that has one single amusing moment (unlike "Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane," which was a dark comedy and had lotsa funny moments). "Narc" is a brutal film, but it's also a damn good one.
This movie is bloody, and it's not for everybody. It's relentlessly paced, and the ending makes you think. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? Is it okay for a good guy to do something bad if it's to help out someone who needs it? Why? Or why not? This is a hard movie to watch, but it's also hard to take your eyes off of it. It's not a perfect movie, it certainly has it's flaws, but I really liked it. If you have the stomach for it, go see "Narc."
Scale of 1-10: 8