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30/10/2007 WE OWN THE NIGHT I don’t want to get all you lovely babeluvers too excited, but I WILL just mention that in the promotional blurb that landed on my ultra-busy desk, the words “female nudity” and “topless” jumped out. There, I knew that would get you interested. Especially when I tell you that one of the stars is Eva Mendes, who looks so hot that even I want to take her home and devour her for my supper. Eva plays Joaquin Phoenix’s foxy girlfriend in a tasty movie set in drug and crime-infested New York in 1988. Phoenix is the manager of a night club where a lot of the gangsters hang out. What he forgets to mention to all his gangsta mates, however is that both his dad and brother are cops and the plot hots up when his brother (Mark Wahlberg) who just happens to be a policeman is badly injured in a premeditated attack. When Joaquin realises the baddies are also out to gun down his dad (Robert Duvall) – one of the city’s top police chiefs – then the fur really starts to fly and he has to break cover and decide which side he’s on. The acting is brilliant and the plot compelling although you kinda guess how it’s all going to pan out from an early stage and when the tension was meant to mount, I found my mind wandering to other places (don’t ask!) Not sure if that was the film’s fault of my latest boyfriend wriggling next to me. The poor darling had just been kicked out of his boyband and spent the whole movie playing with his popcorn, which I have to say was very distracting (I HATE popcorn and ended up grabbing a handful and stuffing it down his trousers). It’s strange because all the lead actors are brilliant and James Gray’s direction is measured and atmospheric, keeping the plot simmering along without completely diving into a full-on drama. So, if I discount my now ex-boyfriend’s irritating wriggling, I reckon there’s summat a bit old hat about the story. Drug traffickers are baddies – no, really? New York’s a dangerous place – yeah? Russian mobsters are violent – you could have fooled me! Two brothers on opposite sides of the law – never heard that one before! I left a bit deflated, thinking that the movie should have been a lot better than it was. A bit like my ex-boyfriend. |
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