a "NIGHT" Made for Sleeping...

my 2-word review of this movie:

DIET COPPOLA

or

SCORSESE LITE

It's a shame, really.

With such a pedigreed cast:
Robert Duvall from The Godfather,
Mark Wahlberg from The Departed,
and Oscar-nominee Joaquin Phoenix,

this movie should have been so much better.

The title alone,
the motto of the NYPD,
kicks major ass.




Writer/Director James Gray
goes through the motions of going for
the gritty gangster gravitas
perfected by Directors Francis Ford & Martin,

but he injects
so many overused, cliched, hackneyed
dialouge and plot elements into the movie
that after watching it,

you might think you've just seen
a Mikey Arroyo/Mark Lapid action fiasco
written & directed by Carlo J. Caparas.



I was also irritated by Gray's Anomaly
in his soundtrack choices:

the film is set in 1988;
yet in the opening club scene,
guess what song the dancers are partying to?


Blondie's HEART OF GLASS...

... a #1 song from 1979.

And in a succeeding club scene,
guess what's boooming through the speakers?


Blondie's RAPTURE...

... a #1 song from 1981.


Director James Gray must have had a
really big crush on Deborah Harry.





But the most disappointing part of watching the movie?


Shelling out P131.00 (!)
and having our puritanical guardians of morality
over at the MTRCB

cutting out the much-ballyhooed kinky nude scene of Eva Mendes
that starts off (and is the best part of) the film.

It's rated R-13,
for chrissake!!!



Oh well,
you can enjoy that excellent scene here...