All Critics (29)
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Top Critics (8)
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Fresh (25)
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Rotten (7)
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DVD (16)
Though this often plays like a 70s cop show, it became a prototype for the bling-heavy gangsta melodramas of the 90s.
Filmmakers pull off a provocative, pulsating update on gangster pics with this action-laden epic about the rise and fall of an inner city crack dealer.
The movie was advertised (no doubt wisely) as a slam-bang action adventure, but in fact it's a serious, smart film with an impact that lingers after the lights go up.
The film's use of once-imposing, now-crumbling New York architecture is particularly effective in underscoring the story with an air of widespread urban decay.
Mario Van Peebles's drugland feature, a relentless, hold-on-to-your-hat experience, rarely lets up.
Van Peebles wanted to tell this story; his heart is in it, and it's got a killer beat.
OK Van Peebles flick featuring Snipes.
We all know New Jack City is making the right statement on drugs, racism, the system, etc. But the fact is it's not very good.
A cynical director, Van Peebles has style to burn, but his work is too flashy to make sense. This is a gangster-thriller about crack trade in Hralem done as a moralistic melodrama with kinky violence.
It's a superior example of what used to be called blaxploitation, with Van Peebles piling on corruption and carnage for all he's worth.
Violent and very engaging.
Am I my brother's keeper? New Jack City is a perfect blind of movie, music video, acting, and stylized violence. A must own for fans of "mob" movies.
Peebles and his crew...turn a pedestrian script into an above-average gangster thriller. (Special Edition DVD set)
...a purely conventional story, but it unfolds in unique and innovative ways, with particularly good turns from its cast, all of which make it a worthwhile watch.
It's basically Scarface with a hip-hop mentality, but it's also a slickly entertaining and consistently engaging crime thriller.
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