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90Carnahan alternates gritty neo-realism with bursts of extreme stylization -- most notably in a breathless opening chase filmed with handheld cameras -- but thankfully, his stylistic flourishes are in the service of the film's story, not the other way around.
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90A blood-soaked, hellish experience -- a midnight special for lovers of a violent genre -- yet it has been made with a mixture of ferocity and sweetness which leaves one exhausted but at peace. [27 January 2003, p. 94]
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89Fresh and raw like a blown-out vein, Narc takes a walking-dead, cop-flick subgenre and beats new life into it.
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83Narc is as cop movie as a cop movie can be.
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80It joins “Rush,” “The Onion Field,” “Serpico,” “Seven,” “The French Connection,” Traffic, and “Prince of the City” as a grimy, hyper-real exploration of the emotional and psychological prices paid by cops.
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80Patric and Liotta are as tense and great as they've ever been.
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80Taut and well-acted, faltering only when the filmmaker loses faith in the power of his story.
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80Narc is convincing, an entertaining, grimy view of the traps of machismo tucked inside a cop thriller.
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80A darkly textured, powerfully suspenseful genre piece.
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80As a director Carnahan definitely has the goods: the opening foot chase, a sequence that's been done to death, is genuinely terrifying.
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75A no-bull throwback to 1970s action films. It zips along with B-movie verve while adding the rich details and go-for-broke acting that heralds something special.
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75The investigation itself must remain undescribed here. But its ending is a neat and ironic exercise in poetic justice.
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75With such skilled filmmaking and committed acting on display, Narc is far more a score than a bust.
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75An unusually vicious and unforgiving study of police corruption, Narc is a stylistic throwback to such classic 1970s cop dramas as "The French Connection" and "Serpico," with a 21st century helping of the old ultra-violence.
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75What could have been a run-of-the- mill story becomes a superb policier in the hands of writerdirector Joe Carnahan.
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75Makes "Training Day" -- which was admittedly pretty tough -- seem like a Disney cartoon by comparison.
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75Patric and Liotta get the chance to do some heavy riffing on themes of honor, sacrifice, selling out and self-destructing, and the bleak, smeared world of drugs and violence is brought to the fore with feverish style.
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75This may be the most uncompromisingly raw police drama since "Across 110th Street," starring Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto.
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75Without a hint of regret, the filmmaker freely borrows from such diverse sources as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, and the TV program "C.S.I."
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75It's a cop movie that refuses to cop out in the usual way.
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70Familiar story, electrifying execution.
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70The direction of Joe Carnahan, who also wrote the script, is stylish without being overbearing, the actors look comfortable in their roles and the modest twists unfold at a pace that doesn't seem ridiculous. The film would probably make a good episode of "Homicide: Life on the Streets."
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70Hardly a scene goes by without a digitally fractured flashback or spasm of editing punctuation, rupturing the movie's otherwise carefully wrought sense of authenticity.
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70It's a stunner that sadly grows tiresome at the end.
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70This is a stirring movie, if relentless intensity, handheld camera work, cover-your-eyes violence and ear-splitting yelling matches are what you're craving.
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67Beneath its frantic surfaces, Narc is terribly ordinary, built on a mystery that will puzzle only those who have never watched a TV cop drama.
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67As the most diabolically focused and politically incorrect cop this side of Popeye Doyle, Liotta is a hot prospect for this year's supporting-actor Oscar.
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63Frustratingly, Carnahan barely trusts his storytelling to keep our attention long enough to get through a scene without some grisly cutaway -- a gun to the head, the writhing wounded.
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63Some might find the whole thing exhilarating, but exhausting is more the word that comes to this man's mind.
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63Ray Liotta and Jason Patric do some of their best work in their underwritten roles, but don't be fooled: Nobody deserves any prizes here.
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60Authenticity and plausibility get gunned down from the get-go, but if explosive shaky-cam ultraviolence and frequent extreme close-ups of greasy whiskers are your bag, this hyperactive wannabe may count as something of a score.
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60To transcend cliché, movies like Narc need the passion of a heretic who can take stock characters with their stock predicaments and turn them inside out, the way Curtis Hanson and Quentin Tarantino do. Blood, guts and flash aren't enough.
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25The movie is designed to show off Liotta's acting skills, but pointless mayhem and sheer nastiness crowd out any virtues it might have had.
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25Liotta's acting can't redeem senseless violence.
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