Narc 2002

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Narc isn't the great movie the gifted Carnahan probably has in him, but it's a great cop B-movie. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: 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. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Narc is fast, brutal and a lot smarter than it at first appears to be. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: Narc is a gritty cop movie for people who like gritty cop movies. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: An entertaining, grimy view of the traps of machismo tucked inside a cop thriller. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: As a director Carnahan definitely has the goods... Unfortunately the script is your basic renegade-cop narrative, with the usual hoo-ha about justice versus the law. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A good cop movie. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Has true grittiness, but the plot's a little murky and the characters a little too familiar. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Narc is all menace and atmosphere. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Over and over, every gesture and character in Narc summons up yet another movie. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: The movie works dramatically right up until the end. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: They're just a couple of cops in Copmovieland, these two, but in Narc, they find new routes through a familiar neighborhood. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A cop movie that refuses to cop out in the usual way. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Narc may not get an 'A' for originality, but it wears its B-movie heritage like a badge of honor. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: The actors are all charged up by their roles, and it rubs off on us: You walk out with a caffeine- and-doughnut high. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Jason Patric, an actor who has mastered the art of giving an understated portrayal, is riveting. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie's writer and director, Joe Carnahan, brings a rough, aggressive energy to the picture. Read more

Jeff Stark, Salon.com: About the best thing you could say about Narc is that it's a rock-solid little genre picture. Whether you like it or not is basically a matter of taste. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: There are things to admire about Narc, but they're individual things, not the movie as a whole. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Jason Patric and Ray Liotta make for one splendidly cast pair. Read more

Time Out: If Carnahan keeps wrenching this material back an inch or two from cliche, it's only an inch or two. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: This may be the most uncompromisingly raw police drama since Across 110th Street, starring Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: The movie fairly bristles -- with degraded-image '70s grit ... handheld hysteria, thickly profane dialogue, abject bloodletting, and post-Method performances. Read more