Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 53 Ratings

  • Starring: Eva Mendes, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg
  • Summary: Bobby Green has turned his back on the family business. The popular manager of El Caribe, the legendary Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach, he has changed his last name and concealed his connection to a long line of distinguished New York cops. For Bobby, every night is a party; he greets friends and customers or dances with his beautiful Puerto Rican girlfriend, Amada, in a haze of cigarette smoke and disco music. But it's 1988, and New York City's drug trade is escalating. Bobby tries to keep a friendly distance from the Russian gangster who is operating out of the nightclub--a gangster who is being targeted by his brother, Joseph, an up-and-coming NYPD officer, as well as his father, Burt, the legendary deputy chief of police. (Columbia Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 33
  2. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. At its core, it's an exploration of the demands and obligations of brotherly love, staged with honesty, originality and a surprising spark of intelligence.
  2. Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    80
    The closest thing Gray's done to a commercial actioner, the film also applies his genius for tone (aided by superlative sound work) to set pieces that throb with trauma: a tinnitus-soundtracked shoot-out and a rain-slick car chase set to the tempo of windshield wipers.
  3. 75
    We Own the Night is defiantly, refreshingly unhip.
  4. A more accomplished film than "Yards." Yet it will fail to satisfy police movie buffs, as procedures are de-emphasized, and the drama is too perfunctory and obvious.

See all 33 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 23
  2. Negative: 7 out of 23
  1. JavierR.
    10
    This movie was the best movie i have seen all year it reminds similar to the movie The Departed both movies were great, this movie will have you glued to your seat like it did tom me. Expand
  2. ChadS.
    8
    Amada(Eva Mendes) is not a blondie; that's why "Heart of Glass" and "Rapture" throb on the soundtrack. This irony sets the stage for Amada's new life as a law and order man's girlfriend. But "We Own the Night" is dishonest about Bobby's father(Robert Duvall) and brother(Mark Wahlberg) in their dealings with Amada, the "brown-ie", the Puerto Rican who sticks out like a sore thumb at police functions. There's racism, but the film conceals it through editing. Since "We Own the Night" chooses to be cowardly about dealing with Amada's ethnicity, it's only fair that the writer hammers square peg attributes, such as integrity and a willingness to be law-abiding, down her round-hole essentiality. Amada likes being an outlaw, but "We Own the Night" doesn't want to Maria Conchita-Alonso her(she played a bad girl in Dennis Hopper's "Colors"), and reforms her party girl image. "We Own the Night" could've been an exceptional police procedural had Bobby(Joaquin Phoenix) insisted that the Grusinsky men accept Amada into the fold as one of the preconditions for his coaction in the family business. Expand
  3. JaredC.
    7
    In We Own The Night, Bobby Green(played by Joaquin Phoenix) the owner of a night club, finds himself, his police captain brother Joseph, his father, a police chief, and his girlfriend in the center of a crime wave due to gangsters and drug dealers who are killing cops at an increasingly high rate. The movie was better than I expected, as I walked in not knowing what the movie was about(I had not seen the trailers or heard much about it prior to watching it). Joaquin Phoenix gave a good performance as the lead, but he didn't wow me as he did in Walk the Line(however, I don't blame him; His character felt underdeveloped to me, as did many others). Mark Wahlberg was just above average as Bobby's tough older brother who doesn't approve of his wild behavior. Eva Mendez plays Bobby's girlfriend and I found her part in the film almost pointless and her performance was just average. The movie drags in parts but for the most part it isn't boring and kept my attention. Although there was not much that really set the movie high above the average crime thriller, it did leave an impact on me at the end. I recommend the movie to those who are looking to pass the time. Expand
  4. This movie just didn't cut it. A guy (J. Phoenix) doesn't go from being a nightclub manager inside a drug den to becoming a decorated cop simply because his high-ranking father got killed. Mark Wahlberg gets shot execution style but lives... only in the movies. The plot lines aren't well developed. The viewer never gets to identify with any of the characters because they're all generic stereotypes, and many of the scenes are incredibly boring. I'm glad I watched this on DVD and could use the fast-forward button; an hour-and-45 minute flick took just 45 minutes to watch, and it still lacked entertainment value. Expand

See all 23 User Reviews

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