We Own the NightMovie Reviews

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 59 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    We Own the Night is defiantly, refreshingly unhip. Read full review

  • 75
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    The movie really belongs to Phoenix, who gives a haunting performance with just the right degree of intensity. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    This is an atmospheric, intense film, well acted, and when it's working it has a real urgency. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    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 full review

  • 70
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    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 full review

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    The story is too patterned and too contrived. Read full review

  • 60
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    A more accomplished film than "Yards." Yet it will fail to satisfy police movie buffs, as procedures are de-emphasized, and the drama is too perfunctory and obvious. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Crust

    It's a bare-knuckled crime drama set in 1988 that stylistically could have been made that year and emphasizes Gray's strengths as a director while drawing attention to his limitations as a writer. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Things are a little off. The style is gritty 1970s-style crime thriller, but the morals are straight out of 2007, and the movie is set in 1988. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    The problem with We Own the Night is that it mistakes sentiment for profundity, and takes its ideas about character and fate more seriously than it takes its characters and their particular fates. "I feel light as a feather," Bobby says in a crucial scene, at which point the movie starts to sink like a stone. Read full review

View more reviews for We Own the Night on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Well-acted but very bloody crime drama.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that while young kids probably won't be interested, older teens who like crime dramas may be drawn to this Joaquin Phoenix-Mark Wahlberg film. Like most mob dramas, there's lots of strong language and a great deal of bloody violence and illicit behavior (drugs and alcohol are everywhere, especially nightclub scenes). In addition to the execution-style killings and police ambushes, there are a few scenes of a couple intensely making out and a shot of two topless, drunk women dancing at a club.
  • Families can talk about the appeal of mob movies. Why are these violent movies so popular? What's so compelling about characters with one foot in the criminal world and one in law enforcement? Kids: Was the violence too graphic, or was it appropriate for the subject matter? How realistic do you think the film is?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: A club manager with seedy connections refuses to help his police officer brother. A tragedy forces him to reconsider, and he becomes a driving force in helping his brother expose a major New York drug operation.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Lots of violence, including many bloody, gory scenes: Many characters are shot -- a couple of them at close range, execution style; one man has the back of his head shot off; a character slits his own throat rather than talk to the police; someone is beaten up by the police; a character jumps out the window and onto a fence; etc.
  • sex false5 Sex: No sex scenes, but several scenes of Bobby and Amada making out/groping while clothed; two women dance topless on the club's bar; Joseph and his wife embrace.
  • language false5 Language: Near-constant cursing: many, many uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "a--hole," etc.
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: NYPD, Sheraton hotel, Blondie's disco songs.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false5 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Clubgoers and major characters do an assortment of drugs, including snorting cocaine, taking uppers/downers, etc. Many scenes include characters taking/dealing drugs or drinking.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

Looking for more reviews? Movies.com Critics Say:

Dave White

3.5

Dave White Profile See Dave White's Profile

… tense, violent, soaking in mood. Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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