NEW JACK CITY (1991)

MORGAN'S RATING

A violent, kinetic gangster film with a strong anti-drug message, New Jack City is set in the mid-1980s during the height of the crack epidemic. Two street-wise undercover cops go after Nino Brown, a ruthless drug lord with extravagant taste in home furnishings. Desperate to bring down his multi-million dollar cocaine empire, they send Pookie, a former street hustler and rehabilitated crack addict, into Nino's drug factory as an undercover spy. When the plan misfires, the cops must face Nino and his henchmen in a bloody showdown.

Wesley Snipes (Nino Brown), Ice-T (Scott Appleton), Allen Payne (Gee Money), Chris Rock (Pookie), Mario Van Peebles (Stone), Michael Michele (Selina), Bill Nunn (Duh Duh Duh Man), Russell Wong (Park), Bill Cobbs (Old Man), Christopher Williams (Kareem Akbar), Judd Nelson (Nick Peretti), Vanessa Williams (Keisha), Tracy Camilla Johns (Uniqua), Anthony DeSando (Frankie Needles), Nick Ashford (Reverend Oates), Phyllis Yvonne Stickney (Prosecuting Attorney Hawkins), Thalmus Rasulala (Police Commissioner), John Aprea (Don Armeteo), Fab Five Freddy (Master of Celemonies), Flavor Flav (D.J.), Clebert Ford (Frazier), Laverne Hart (Prom Queen), Eek-A-Mouse (Fat Smitty), Gregg Smrz (Biff), Erica McFarquhar (Teacher), Keith Sweat (Singer at Wedding), Max Rabinowitz (Gigantor), Marcella Lowery (Woman in Hall), Manuel E. Santiago (Judge), Ben Gotlieb (Prosecuting Attorney), Thelma Louise Carter (Reporter), Linda Froehlich (Reporter), Christopher Michael (Baliff), Tiger Frederick (Basketball Player), Rynel Johnson (Basketball Player), Kelly Jo Minter (Recovering Addict).

WHERE SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON FRIENDS, TRUST AND POWER...AN ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY OUT TO RUN THIS CITY IS UP AGAINST THE COPS WHO KNOW ITS STREETS.

FACTS

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

RELEASE DATE: March 8th, 1991 (USA) BOX OFFICE OPENING: $7.0 million (USA) BOX OFFICE RESULT: $47.6 million (USA) BUDGET: $8 million (USA) SHOOTING DATES: April 1990 -- June 1990 - Directorial debut for actor Mario Van Peebles, the son of actor and pioneering black director Melvin Van Peebles. - A $40 million dollar law suit was filed in New York Supreme Court in June 1991 by Kurt Anthony against Wesley Snipes and the films producers. Anthony, an actor and screenwriter, claimed that Snipes lifted the idea for the film directly from a screenplay entitled "Innocent Blood" that Anthony wrote and shown to Snipes.

DIRECTOR: Mario Van Peebles.  WRITERS: Thomas Lee Weight and Barry Michael Cooper. PRODUCERS: George Jackson and Doug McHenry. ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: James Bigwood, Suzanne Broderick, Fab Five Freddy and Dwight Williams.  CO-PRODUCER: Preston L. Holmes. ORIGINAL MUSIC: Michel Colombier. DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.

QUOTES

Nino Brown: Move out your five dollar ass before I have to make change.

G-Money: I had my jimmy whacked every day!

Scott Appleton: I wanna shoot you so bad, my dick's hard!

Nino Brown: Money talks, and bullshit runs a marathon. So, see ya and I wouldn't want to be ya.

CRITICAL COMMENTS

"The excitement factor in New Jack City, especially at the beginning, is inescapable." -- Desson Howe, Washington Post

Pooky: They got that shit hooked up like Mission Impossible, man!

"Mario Van Peebles' New Jack City whizzes past your head with a velocity of a bullet, and with such immediacy that it leaves behind a whiff of cordite." -- Hal Hinson, Washington Post

[Last Line] Old Man: Idolater! Your soul is required in hell! [Shoots Nino.]

Nick Peretti: Drugs ain't a black thing, or a white thing. It's a death thing. Death don't give a shit about color.