Yay, Joaquin.
I thought most of the individual performances were really good and there’s some pretty intense cop-on-drug-dealer action. But I wasn’t totally thrilled. Felt like the movie was really divided into three parts: part 1) before Joaquin gets involved, part 2) the long middle involved and sometimes in hiding and part 3) the final confrontation. Felt like the middle part 2) was too long and there wasn’t enough in the first part 1). Things started to happen too fast / I needed a few more set up scenes to get involved with more characters than just Joaquin. And then part 3) again gets short changed (due to too much middle) and things just sort of…end. And the very last scene felt a bit like an add-on. Like they needed to add a little moment / put in sort of throwaway nod to the girl. It could have ended when Joaquin walked over to the car after handing the gun over to his “uncle” (or I thought that older police dude was their uncle anyway).
Seeing previews for American Gangster and thinking “hmm, so this fall they’re both making Westerns again (3:10 to Yuma, Assassination of Jesse James) and they’re also making ’70s NY cop/bad guys flicks (We Own the Night, American Gangster)…”
There’s a pretty gratuitous Joaquin/Eva Mendes sex scene at the very beginning of this movie. At least, so far, I can’t think of a way in which it advances the plot. But I’m not saying I minded. It may be gratuitous…but it is H-O-T hot. Very sexy. Smooches to you, Joaquin.