NARC
Released: December 20, 2002
Jason Patric and Ray Liotta - two actors that could be described as intense - team up as fellow Detroit cops in a brutally messy story involving the investigation of a slain officer. This is director Joe Carnahan's first major film and he succeeds here at bringing the dirty, dangerous streets of Detroit to the screen (even though it was primarily shot in Toronto). Liotta and Patric are cops but it's clear early on that this investigation is much more personal to each officer than it seems. Just how personal, and in what context, is the adhesive that holds this story tightly wound at all times. Even the ending can be taken two quite different ways by the audience and that makes for a movie you can talk about afterwards with your friends. Patric, who is hardly a prolific actor, sticks to quality films - "Rush", for example - and I'll forgive him for "Speed 2". Liotta, who has delivered this frenzied type of character before is good here but actually got a snicker from the audience during one of his trademark outbursts. But don't let that deter you, "Narc" is easily one of the best cop movies since the shunned "Cop Land" with Liotta and Sylvester Stallone in 1997.
102 Minutes
Lions Gates Films/Paramount