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Mr. Untouchable
Magnolia Pictures

Mr. Untouchable reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 65 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.0 out of 10
based on 13 reviews
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How did we calculate this?
based on 1 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Leroy 'Nicky' Barnes, Thelma Grant, Carol Hawkins-Williams, Joseph Jazz Hayden, and Leon Scrap Batts

Mr. Touchable is the true-life story of Harlem's notorious Nicky Barnes, a junkie turned multimillionaire drug lord, which takes its audience deep inside the heroin industry of the 1970s. The most powerful black drug kingpin in New York City history, Barnes came from humble beginnings to make himself and his comrades rich beyond their wildest dreams, ultimately reaching national infamy in 1977 when the New York Times put him on the front cover of its magazine with the headline "Mr. Untouchable." Soon after, it all came crumbling down, and facing a life sentence without parole, Barnes started naming names. With the firsthand testimony from "the black Godfather" himself, this documentary tells an epic story of business, excess, greed, and revenge. (Magnolia)


GENRE(S): Documentary  
DIRECTED BY: Marc Levin  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 29, 2008 
Theatrical: October 26, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
As interesting, certainly, as “American Gangster,” and operating with a truer street sense of the characters involved.
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75
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
If Barnes ultimately emerges as a heartless, duplicitous villain, he's nevertheless got the devil's slippery, seductive charm.
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75
New York Post V.A. Musetto
What emerges is a portrait of a complex man - one who had no qualms about murder and drugs but who won a national poetry contest and read "Moby-Dick" while in jail. Go figure.
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75
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
It's not a pretty picture, but it sure is a compelling one.
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75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
The "black Godfather" comes off as a cold-blooded narcissist whose vision of the American Dream is as twisted as it seems to have been rewarding.
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70
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
It's undeniably fascinating, but you might want to take a shower after hanging out with this unsavory bunch.
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70
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A slick package all around. Adroitly edited, filled with fine music like Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman" and more people flashing needles than at a garment worker's convention, this film is less a dispassionate examination than a celebratory infomercial on its central character.
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70
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It's fast and furious, and it proves that crime doesn't pay, unless you know how to do it right.
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70
Village Voice Michelle Orange
A fascinating first-person account of drug kingpin and ruthless gangster Nicky Barnes, whose outrageous story of rise, rule, rage, and revenge requires no such stylistic filler.
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63
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Barnes, now in his seventies and relocated by the Witness Protection Program, is shot only in silhouette, but there's plenty of footage of him in his heyday, dressed to the pimpalicious nines and playing to the cameras like a movie star.
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60
The New York Times A.O. Scott
There is some acknowledgment of the terrible effects of the drug trade on residents of Harlem and other poor New York neighborhoods, but for the most part Mr. Untouchable clings to the standard hip-hop mythology of the pusher as entrepreneur, rebel, celebrity and folk hero.
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50
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Machiavelli epigrams and 70s soul classics embellish this slice of thug life, which succumbs to the usual hypocrisy of condemning Barnes while grooving on his cars, clothes, and jewels.
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50
Variety Robert Koehler
Alternately seduced and repelled by its subject, the garish and power-hungry Harlem gangster and '70s cocaine kingpin Nicky Barnes, Mr. Untouchable is one seriously confused documentary.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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