New Jack City (1991)

A film I somehow missed when it was first released, despite hearing a lot of good talk about it, New Jack City constantly kept being held back from the top of my prioritised viewing list by many other movies. That’s a shame, because this is a great movie, energetic and entertaining throughout, with a nicely stacked cast.

It’s the tale of a drug dealer/crimelord, named Nino (Wesley Snipes), who seems to remain far too many steps ahead of the law. He rose to his position thanks to the introduction of crack cocaine into the drug market. Addicts die, threats die, competitors die, but Nino just keeps on trucking, much to the frustration of a special task force that has been assembled to bring him down. Headed up by Detective Stone (Mario Van Peebles), the two men most likely to get some kind of victory over Nino are Appleton (Ice-T) and Peretti (Judd Nelson). They are willing to do whatever it takes, even helping an addict (Pookie, played by Chris Rock) clean and asking him to do some undercover work for them.

Written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, New Jack City dances beautifully between some moments of realistic violence, some very pertinent points on the changing face of modern crime and those in charge, and pure visceral cinema. All of the characters feel slightly larger than life, but that helps to underline the idea of the way territories have been redrawn and reformed. And there is snappy dialogue throughout that reveals extra information about choices made by the main characters.

The champ of delivering that snappy dialogue is Snipes, who gives what could well be his best ever performance, all confidence and no heart. Having said that, Snipes has so many great performances tucked away in his filmography that it’s tough to pick out a clear favourite. He owns every minute of his screentime here though, and it’s a good job. His character needs that charisma and presence to be at all believable, even while being so enjoyably over the top. Ice-T and Nelson have to bicker at one another in standard “cops who may not like one another, but will look out for one another” mode, and they do well with what they’re given, especially when delivering some more melodramatic moments in the finale. Then there’s Rock, delivering a fantastic performance as an itchy and desperate junkie who is given a big second chance at life. Bill Nunn and Bill Cobbs are as good as ever, Allen Payne does perfectly okay, although he is the weakest of the main players, and there are many others worth keeping an eye out for, from Michael Michele and Vanessa Williams to Russell Wong and Anthony DeSando, as well as Fab 5 Freddy, Flavor Flav, and more.

Although he has a supporting role, Van Peebles also gives himself the much more important job of directing this thing. Helped by the casting, and the soundtrack (this has an amazing soundtrack), he delivers a film that I would easily rank alongside many of the top crime films of the 1990s. It’s arguable that making something more grounded, and grittier, would have been a better approach, but this is a slickly-packaged bit of entertainment that is also a call for change. Van Peebles, with the script he is working from, gives viewers a sugar-coated pill, but you can still easily taste the sour centre. 

It may not seem as worthy as a film like Boyz N The Hood (released in the same year), or Menace II Society (which came along a couple of years later), but it is just as deserving of your time, even if it takes a very different approach to the social issues being explored.

9/10

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American Warships (2012)

Well, I never thought I would do this but let's start this review by linking to a Daily Mail article here (you don't know how dirty and violated that makes me feel but it's necessary). That article details the sad story behind the name change for this film, another "mockbuster" from The Asylum that was originally slated to be released as American Battleship. Now, while I appreciate that many people hate The Asylum and can't even begin to understand why I tolerate their movies I can also appreciate these two facts:

1) The most common complaint levelled against The Asylum is a lack of originality. They're just copying the big, upcoming releases and trying to cynically cash in on big names. This is often very true. They do copy successful formulae and try to make as much money as possible before anyone cottons on to the fact that their film might be rubbish. And here's the thing about that - it's the exact same thing that Hollywood does every single week of the year. They may not be quite so upfront about it but does that make their moneymaking endeavours any closer to having artistic integrity? No, not at all. ARTISTS in Hollywood CAN have artistic integrity, of course, but I am talking about the big picture of the whole Hollywood game. The fact that Universal were worried by a small movie that looked to ride on the coat-tails of a blockbuster based on a boardgame is ever so slightly sad. One film is pretty much as unoriginal as the other so, to paraphrase that old AvP tagline - whoever wins . . . . . . . . audiences lose.

2) The word battleship is a word to describe a big ship that can take part in a battle. I'm pretty sure that the word existed before the game came along. Now, fair enough, if The Asylum tried to release American Hasbro Battleship I could see that being a problem but they didn't. They used A word that was shared by a big, recent release. If I wanted to write and develop a movie called Battleship Bomber I don't see any reason why that would be a problem. Or even writing and developing a film called British Battleship. I'm not denying that the content is another issue altogether, all I'm saying is that whatever Universal wanted from The Asylum a title change should not have been on the cards.

Anyway, after upsetting a number of people with those views, let me get on with the review.

American Warships is about a big BATTLESHIP* that finds itself warring against an invisible opponent. Other countries are suspected of starting hostilities and the world may end up on the brink of nuclear war but the only thing concerning the crew of the BATTLESHIP* is defeating the enemy before they are themselves destroyed.

Written and directed by Thunder Levin (which is one of the greatest names I have ever heard in my entire life - I now wish I had called my kids Thunder, Lightning and Hail), American Waships is a diverting enough piece of hokum. The main premise is completely ridiculous, of course, but then the same thing could be said of many other movies out there at your local multiplex (with hundreds of millions of dollars thrown at them). At least this film has a nice, but completely random, THX-1138 reference in the mix.

The special effects aren't so special but, overall, they do the job required when it comes to scenes featuring a BATTLESHIP* shooting at an unseen enemy. There are a few moments that are eye-searingly awful (a bunch of Navy SEALs trying to board the invisible craft ranks is laughably bad and looks like it was put together with a photobooth app) but it's generally a huge improvement over the cheap wire-frame Amiga 32-created models that The Asylum tend to put onscreen.

The cast aren't all that bad either. Mario Van Peebles is the man in charge of the BATTLESHIP*  and there's also a small role for the great Carl Weathers. It helps that Johanna Watts is absolutely gorgeous to look at while playing Lieutenant Bradley and the supporting players include Nikki McCauley as a bit of a brainy type who may just be able to come up with some alternative solutions to defeat the enemy and a bunch of disposable men playing . . . . . . . . . disposable men.

It's not a movie that you'll want to rush out and buy (films from The Asylum rarely are) but if you're attracted to the dumb premise then you should find enough here to keep you entertained from start to finish. Especially if you're a fan of BATTLESHIPS*.

 5/10

*The word BATTLESHIP/S is being used in this review simply as a descriptive word and not in any way relating to the trademarked boardgame.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Warships-DVD-Mario-Peebles/dp/B0085K6I7Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1337803675&sr=1-1

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