We Own the Night 2007

John Hartl, Seattle Times: May not have much new to say about the war on drugs...but it says it awfully well. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: Like The Yards, We Own the Night is broody to the point of anesthesia and operatic to the verge of bombast. And like its predecessor, the new film takes itself far too seriously. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The story remains oddly unaffecting, and Gray's camera sense is visually lethargic outside the two big action sequences. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: We Own the Night plays like gangbusters. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: One of Hollywood's moldy oldies -- brothers on opposite sides of the law -- gets yet another spin in this lead-footed crime drama by James Gray. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Gray deserves some credit, though, for making a movie that seems deeper and more resonant than it turns out to be. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Phoenix is unquestionably the star of the film. His journey is particularly angst-ridden, and he shows it every step of the way. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg do a lot of the talking, great mumbling. Two of the movies' master mutterers, they supply a double tour-de-force of indifference to enunciation, steamrolling the English language until it sounds like some other dialect. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: Gray's skill with meting out suspense pays considerable dividends. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Gray's craftsmanship is admirable, which shows some old-fashioned reverence for the triangulated composition of Scene, Character, Plot and avoids, by and large, the snazzy edits and visual bling that pass for a cinematic imagination these days. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Time will tell, but from where I'm sitting this deceptively routine cop movie runs deep. In fact, it already looks like a classic. Cagney and Tracy would be proud. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Gray loves actors, and it shows. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: As flat-footed as writer-director James Gray's script often sounds, his cops-vs.-mob tale can be strangely mesmerizing. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Gray is a far better director than he is a writer. He's got the talent to make great movies. He just needs to stop trying to. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Wahlberg, unfortunately, is over the top, and not in the good way he was in Scorsese's The Departed. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: You don't judge artists by where they find their inspiration; you judge them by how they realize it. And in We Own the Night James Gray hits the bull's-eye. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: It's not surprising, but it's engaging enough that most patrons will likely cut the director some slack for the out-of-period details and convoluted plot contrivances that make the film seem at once sloppy and too neat. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: This one hangs on the notion of fate, and once you've figured out whose fate is the central issue, the outcome -- even with those clumsy plot twists -- is fairly predictable. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Too slow to be a guilty pleasure and too dumb to be an innocent one, We Own the Night doesn't say a lot except We Own a Lot of Scorsese DVDs. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It would be nothing more than sturdy entertainment were it not for the presence of Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: At times solid and suspenseful, at times dopily implausible and woefully familiar. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: As cop/crime dramas go, this one offers little that's new but it takes the time to develop the characters and that's where its strengths lie. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This is an atmospheric, intense film, well acted, and when it's working it has a real urgency. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: An intriguing blend of mainstream audience-pleaser and a more subtle, even intellectual agenda. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A robust, respectable cop movie. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: God knows [writer-director Gray] has skill and integrity, but perhaps it's time to acknowledge that he could use script help. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Highly derivative of 1970s films. Sometimes 'good enough' just isn't good enough. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: [Gray's] feel for dialogue has rarely failed him, and it doesn't here. Read more

Jonathan Crocker, Time Out: A desperate violence and urgency spills out in the film's flash-point set-pieces - not least a sensational car chase, shot through a windscreen, hammering rain and a blur of fear. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The theme of this absorbing crime drama centers on a simple idea: Blood is thicker than powder. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Adequately acted and flecked with the required quota of action to satisfy genre fans, pic recalls numerous good police dramas of the 1970s, but mostly in superficial ways that bring nothing new to the table. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: Helpless with comedy, heavily reliant on coincidence, and out of step with all current cinematic vogue, We Own the Night finally resonates as a beautiful, dolorous nocturne. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: As always, Phoenix is an arresting presence on screen, but don't expect any Departed-esque fast talk from Wahlberg, who is oddly inert in a role that should crackle with brotherly ambivalence. Read more