a5c7b9f00b A crime lord ascends to power and becomes megalomaniacal while a maverick police detective vows to stop him. A modern-day crime epic focusing on the efforts of two unorthodox police officers to bring down a drug gang at the height of New York City&#39;s crack cocaine epidemic of 10 years ago. The film also chronicles the rise and fall of Nino Brown, the antagonist of the film, in a light study of drug proliferation and its effects on poor neighborhoods. As numerous attempts to break the control of the gang fail and violence begins to escalate, how far will the police go to catch Nino Brown? &quot;New Jack City&quot; is probably one of the best films of the early 1990s. Here we have the story of Nino Brown, played powerfully by Wesley Snipes, a drug lord hell-bent on contaminating the community, particularly the African-American community, with crack cocaine. Recruited to stop him are Scotty Applewhite and Nick Perreti, played respectively by Ice-T and Judd Nelson. <br/><br/>There is much doubt about these two officers because of their shady pasts. And a big brouhaha occurs when Applewhite recruits a kid named Pookie - played brilliantly by comedian Chris Rock in one of his early roles - a former &quot;runner&quot; (which is street for dealer) turned addict himself. Ice puts Pookie on the road to recovery and sends him in to infiltrate the CMB (Cash Money Brothers), Brown&#39;s underworld organization. When things start to go wrong, Applewhite decides to infiltrate the group himself.<br/><br/>All in all this is a great movie. I love the producers&#39; use of music throughout the moviea means of setting the tone for this cinematic war on drugs. Mario Van Peeples does an excellent job of directing and does a pretty good job playing the officer who recruits Applewhite and Perreti. Ice-T is excellent in one of his earliest roles and, thus, has proven to be a good character actor. And the supporting cast is top-notch. Michael Michelle (of &quot;ER&quot; fame) is totally sexyan early financeer of CMB and an initial love interest of Snipes. <br/><br/>I could surely live without Judd NelsonNick Perreti though. Throughout the movie he looks like he&#39;s trying to be this bad-a** biker cop and comes offthough he&#39;s trying to be black, though his response to a comment made by Rock regarding a Marvin Gaye song suggests that maybe he&#39;s a bit of a racist. Casting Nelson makes me wonder sometimes &quot;WHAT THE F*** WERE THEY THINKING??? A BRAT-PACKER???&quot;<br/><br/>The ending to the movie could be strongerwellit seems a bit cut-and-paste for my taste. I feel that they could&#39;ve shown more testimony from more of the different players. However, they do redeem themselves with a violent confrontation between Nino Brown and an elderly World-War II veteran who had been evicted from the apartment building that the CMB now occupied and who had since been hounding him with phrases like (and this is not an exact quote), &quot;Your soul is required for a meeting in Hell, you idolater.&quot;<br/><br/>I suggest that you look past Judd Nelson&#39;s weak acting and the cut-and-paste ending and check this movie out. Sadly, this story still holds true today even if some of the players are different. <br/><br/>I give this one 9 of 10. This is a very stylish movie. All the elements seem to have combined to give it a very distinctive look and feel. The soundtrack is excellent and complements the story perfectly, almost like it is a part of the story. All the performances are great but special mention has to go to Wesley Snipes and the great Judd Nelson/Ice T double act. Okay the plot doesn&#39;t really tax your brain but if you are a fan of gangster movies or want a bit of mindless entertainment then you won&#39;t go wrong with this film. The movie has no sense of temptation and no real taste for revolt-it's a good little film that knows its place. Van Peebles' direction has a by-the-numbers competence but no discernible personality.
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