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Movies / Upcoming / We Own The Night
We Own The Night

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We Own The Night (2007)

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Reviews Counted:137

Fresh:75

Rotten:62

Average Rating:5.8/10

Consensus: Bland characters, clichéd dialogue and rickety plotting ensure We Own The Night never lives up to its potential.

Australian Rating: MA15+ [See Full Rating] Strong violence, Drug use and coarse language

Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

Genre: Dramas

Australian Theatrical Release:
Feb 21, 2008 Wide

US Box Office: $28,563,179

Synopsis: Director James Gray (THE YARDS) posits two distinctly different brothers--Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) and Bobby Grusinsky (Joaquin Phoenix)--as the central characters in this crime-infested thriller.... Director James Gray (THE YARDS) posits two distinctly different brothers--Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) and Bobby Grusinsky (Joaquin Phoenix)--as the central characters in this crime-infested thriller. Joseph and Bobby inhabit two conflicting worlds in late 1980s New York, the former becoming a cop and the latter running a nightclub. Bobby spends his evenings in a den of iniquity, indulging in drugs, alcohol, and gambling, and his model-like girlfriend Amada (Eva Mendes) is never far from his arm. Their two worlds meet when the father of the two men, Burt (Robert Duvall), who is also a cop, gets together with Joseph to ask Bobby for information about a patron of the club named Vadim (Alex Veadov). Vadim is the nephew of the club's owner, and also a dangerous member of the Russian criminal underworld. Bobby sides with Vadim, and the tension in Gray's brother-versus-brother potboiler reaches melting point as Joseph goes after both his sibling and his Russian foe. Wahlberg, Phoenix, and Duvall all deliver high-caliber performances throughout, and Gray suffuses the plot with enough twists and turns to provide a few surprises. New York City is perfectly utilized as a backdrop to the action, and cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay manages to get the balance between moody, atmospheric shots and explosive action sequences just right. WE OWN THE NIGHT ultimately resembles an old-fashioned cop film with a little Scorsese-like drama thrown in for good measure, and is likely to gain a following among movie fans seeking retro crime thrills. [More]

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Robert Duvall

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Robert Duvall

Director: James Gray

Director: James Gray
Screenwriter: James Gray
Producer: Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Nick Wechsler, Marc Butan
Composer: Wojciech Kilar
Studio: Warner Bros.

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for We Own The Night

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Lovers of good straightforward thrillers should find plenty to enjoy here.

Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment Comment
03/19/08
David Stratton
David Stratton
At the Movies (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
02/29/08
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

These are some of the finest actors in America, so it's no surprise that they deliver the goods and create solid, complex and accessible characters we can understand.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
02/21/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Gray assumes rather than dramatizes the depths of his characters, scanning for gravitas where there are only rickety clichés

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/27/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: NPR.org | comment Comment
10/18/08
Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello
NPR.org

Although We Own the Night is never as suspenseful as it wants to be and can be a little formulaic, it never comes close to being boring, and that's something you can't say too often about movies these days.

Full Review Source: Watertown Daily Times | comment Comment
07/22/08
Adam Tobias
Adam Tobias
Watertown Daily Times

(We Own the Night) was terribly written and just such a waste of great actors.

Full Review Source: WJFK-FM (CBS Radio) | comment 3 Comments
05/24/08
Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy
WJFK-FM (CBS Radio)

A heavyweight piece that, like its impressive cast, competently and quietly does the business.

Full Review Source: Mansized | comment Comment
05/14/08
Chris Laverty
Chris Laverty
Mansized
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
04/03/08
Boxoffice Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's a roller coaster, mainly because a good scene is typically followed by a bad one. For every thrill, there is a melodramatic moment that just doesn't work.

Full Review Source: The Scorecard Review | comment Comment
03/04/08
Jeff Bayer
Jeff Bayer
The Scorecard Review

We Own the Night declaws the organized crime genre.

Full Review Source: Washington Times | comment Comment
02/15/08
Christian Toto
Christian Toto
Washington Times

Eva Mendes seems to basically be around just to work hard feeding her man Joaquin's erotic fantasies for some relaxation on his down time, in this grim, meandering excursion through Brooklyn's mean streets.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
02/02/08
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
01/18/08
Joshua Rothkopf
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York

Traz vários bons momentos que o transformam em um exemplar de gênero acima da média, a começar por alguns excelentes diálogos.

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
01/16/08
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

haraktires poy tha mporoysan aneta na perasoyn arketo hrono akoma se skoteina syrtaria, mpas kai mporesoyn na skoteiniasoyn arketa oi idioi gia na metamorfothoyn se kati esto endiaferon an ohi diaforetiko

Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | comment Comment
01/14/08
Joseph Proimakis
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
01/14/08
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

You probably won't hate it, but that's because you probably won't feel much of anything about it

Full Review Source: Movie Habit | comment Comment
12/20/07
Marty Mapes
Marty Mapes
Movie Habit

A sombre, intelligent, feeling crime drama set in a working-class New York characterised by striving and shabbiness.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
12/14/07
Robert Hanks
Robert Hanks
Independent

The stand-out set piece is an agonising car chase in the rain, replacing the full-throttle showmanship of the Bourne series with a foot on the brake, a shotgun pointing out of the adjacent car, and a series of tight close-ups on the terrified Phoenix.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
12/14/07
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph

Offers little that Scorsese doesn’t offer with more élan and wit.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
12/14/07
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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