Feel free to roll through the movie with us, but know that the clips are all . You have been warned.
If you're following along at home, we're 45:40 into the film or right at the start of the above clip.
Time has no meaning in this film. Pookie has been working in The Carter for like one scene, but now rich, upper class black guy (the computer expert and horrible actor) says..."You know, I told G-Money how good you been working out, right? And I told him how many customers you bringin' in. And you're just a lookout. ... We gonna get you a better position."
Apparently Pookie has been working there for a while even though the movie doesn't do anything else to suggest this is the case.
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Ice T and Asian cop both start screaming "yes, inside!" when Pookie gets taken to see G-Money (apparently the name of Velour suit). I guess this isn't police work but rather a college basketball game.
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Mario Van Peebles is carrying his baby in a front papoose walking the beach between cigarette dangling (not smoking, of course, just dangling) Judd Nelson white cop; African medallion, African fabric hatted, dreadlocked Ice T uber-black cop; and Pookie saying that he doesn't know if Pookie is ready for this.
Damn if this man isn't subtle.
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Wait, Ice T just revealed that a little junkie like Pookie killed his mother back in 1974. Mother wasn't in the game, just came up and shot her for no reason.
Remember that for about an hour from now when Nino tells a story about his first kill as a gang member.
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Pookie's back on the pipe.
He's beaming up to Scotty.
It took all of one scene for him to slide all the way back.
Seriously, if this were a season-long show, this would've worked because we would've gotten a couple of episodes with Pookie looking tempted then trying to resist and then finally giving in. Instead, we get "you owe a lot of people...don't screw it up" followed immediately by Pookie screwing it up.
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He's screwing it up wordlessly...with a massive, exaggerated look of anguish on his face and a wailing, electric guitar in the background.
If Dave Chapelle taught us anything, it's that white people love electric guitar. Why does Pookie have an electric guitar playing behind him?
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White cop just called Ice T "Superfly"...that's not racist.
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When asked if Pookie's odd actions (viewed through a James Bondian belt buckle tv camera) were a cry for help, White cop said "no, it's a black thing."
Ok, that might have been racist.
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At least White cop isn't a stereotype or anything.
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Pookie is about to blow it by revealing the belt buckle camera. Half an hour ago (in movie-watching time) he was coked out. Fifteen minutes ago he was rehabbed and got into the Carter. Now the undercover work is about to end.
Give this a full season done up right like The Wire because compressing it this much doesn't make a lick of sense.
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Wait, did G-Money really just say "What, you Five-Oh?"
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The CMB is prepared. They have dozens of gas cans all around to burn the computers right up. I am impressed with their organization.
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The cops come in guns a blazin, M16s firing, black hoods pulled over their faces, plastique blowing up the doors.
Where do they get all their fabulous toys?
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The computers which were just doused in gasoline and set on fire now seem to be totally unburned. Luckily the CMB ejected all the disks with the data on them so White cop couldn't find them.
Apparently the CMB were prepared but their gasoline didn't actually burn anything. That's just bad luck there.
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White cop knows how to defuse bombs - like the one strapped to Pookie's chest. Lucky that, eh?
Not that it matters because Pookie's dead.
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And Nino is in bed with the girl who would never come between him and G-Money.
She seems nice.
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Whoever gave Wesley Snipes the chain is a genius. He uses it as a dog leash then as a jump rope then as a garrote. I'm not actually joking about this; Wesley Snipe is really acting here, using the prop to his character's full advantage.
This may be the best scene in the movie.
And the line "Sit you five-dollar a$$ down before I make change." is outstanding.
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Nino just stabbed upper class computer black guy in the hand with a sword from his cane, nailing the hand to the table. I've wondered before just how easy it would be to stab somebody through the hand because you see it in movies all the time, and it doesn't seem to take much effort.
How likely would you be to hit bones and screw up the drama of the move?
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All of the flashy colors are gone from the wardrobes around the table now. Black tops, black slacks, black shoes. Apparently something went wrong.
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Wesley Snipe at 3:07 in the above clip nails the dismissal "leave me" of the emperor who is bored with the proceedings and wants to be left alone. I don't know why he would be bored at this point, but I love the line delivery none the less.
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G-Money has cracked. He's being filmed through a fish tank with the huge amounts of bubbles obscuring his face. He's delivering a soliloquy to a crack pipe. He's like some sort of demented MacBeth at this point.
I know when actors have to fake drinking beer they use apple juice. When they have to fake smoking tobacco they use cloves. When they have to fake smoking marijuana they use (I assume tobacco).
How do they fake freebasing crack?
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We've come full circle at Pookie's funeral. The minister is reading the lines from 1st Corinthians that were painted on the wall in the first scene (neither fornicators nor idolaters...shall inherit the Kingdom of God). That's beautiful symmetry...
...if this were the end of the movie. It's not. It's like fifty-eight minutes into a two-hour movie.
This should be the end of the first season.
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Why does one of the gravediggers have a metal hook for a hand? Is that a joke?
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Why does Mario Van Peebles's character have his tie untied at Pookie's funeral? Nobody else is going casual.
What decision did Van Peebles the director make to tell Van Peebles the actor that this was a good choice?
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Van Peebles says that he gambled on Ice T, and Ice T gambled on a crack head. Ice T starts to punch Van Peebles, but Judd Nelson stops him and says "that's enough, man".
What bonding crap have we missed to make this reasonable? Judd Nelson's character hates Ice T's. Judd Nelson's white cop has done nothing but mock the choice of Pookie the whole time.
Why the sudden flip?
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"Scottie, let it go, man. Operation's over...it's over."
For some reason, I'm actually thinking that it might not be over.
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Oh, wait. Ice T just came back with "it ain't over."
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Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
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Oh, here's the bonding moment that apparently happened before hand. White cop and black cop are drinking together on a roof. Apparently Van Peebles is doing a Pulp Fiction and showing us scenes out of order.
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White cop delivers soliloquy #2...
"This whole drug s***...it's not a black thing and it's not a white thing. It's a death thing. Death doesn't give a s*** about color. [...] We're in this together now, partner."
Black cop retorts...
"You know, a drug dealer is the worst kind of brother, man. He won't sell it to his sister. He won't sell it to his mother, but he'll sell it to one of his boys on the street."
I wonder how Van Peebles feels about drugs.
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I love the "jump a guy in the alley but only show the confrontation in shadows against a wall" technique. That's not used enough. (7:15 in the above clip)
Where the heck is the light that bright shining into any alley to do that?
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Smooth, young Italian (who lost his ponytail earlier, who brought a lawn jockey with a noose to Nino) introduces G-Money to White cop and Black cop as drug dealers. Black cop has on a black, fur fedora and a leather duster that is resting on his shoulders, his arms not in the sleeves.
And G-Money trusts Italian guy because of why again?
Oh, and White cop doesn't say anything because he's "the main man".
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I love that it takes all of thirty seconds for Ice T to go undercover successfully.
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We're now in season two of the correctly paced television show New Jack City.
And the Italian smoothy called somebody and said "Nino is about it ich."
See, that's a reference to something that his Italian mobster leader said earlier.
You have to be paying attention to this movie, I tell ya.
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The CMB are now paying a tense game of one-on-one wearing slacks, dress shoes, and no shirts.
How times have changed.
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Van Peebles wisely chooses the subtle path in letting his message slip gently into the film again.
At 0:45 the camera pulls back to show this...
I wonder how Van Peebles feels about drugs.
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Upper class computer guy says he recognizes Ice T from somewhere. (remember the "well-dressed black man" who saw Ice T shoot Pookie and on whose face we flashed three separate times?)
Subtlety, thy name is Van Peebles.
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G-Money is supposedly buying drugs 60% cheaper from Ice T.
Um, where are the cops getting all the drugs to sell?
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Nino and Ice T are sharing a moment on the roof at night.
No, not that kind of a moment. It's a bonding moment like White cop and Black cop had a few scenes ago.
Nino is telling a story about his first time killing someone for a gang.
I was wrong. You can stop thinking about Ice T's mother dying now.
It was Nino who killed Ice T's mom.
Isn't that a tragic coincidence?
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Wise old black man is back for his second appearance.
He points out that Nino is an idol worshiper, an idolater.
Where have we heard something about that before?
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This time the old man has a gun and draws it on Nino before Ice T takes the gun away to save Nino's life.
Ice T is conflicted.
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Nino is hosting a wedding at a public park...in the daytime.
Bright, sunshiny daytime.
At the same time, White cop is breaking into Nino's house to get something from his safe...at night.
Dim, dark night.
At the same time as the bright, sunshiny daytime.
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White cop can crack safes, too.
Later in the movie, he's going to show us how to cook a three-minute egg in two minutes. He's just that good.
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The wedding is nearly over, but the entire CMB inner circle is still there...because apparently they're cleaning things up.
Wait, the catering staff is all Italians.
Italians?!?!
Oh, there are two little girls still there. They're needed to have to run back across the screen before the shooting begins.
It worked in Untouchables...it worked in Battleship Potemkin...it'll work in New Jack City...
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Where did all the fifteen degree camera angles go? I kinda miss them.
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The Italians ?!?!?! are really bad shots.
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Ice T has his first moment of conflicted conscience - he has a clear shot at Nino while the shooting is going on and decides to pass.
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Suddenly Nino's girlfriend (not the one who came between the 'brothers', she's apparently mysteriously gone) says Nino is a murderer...that she's seen him kill too many people.
Um, have you not been watching the same movie as the rest of us?
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The CMB are back in the muted primary colors again. Apparently things are going well again.
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3:34 - three Italians playing cards at a street-side trattoria that isn't under a bridge.
Except in the next cut, it is.
At 3:38 I think Judd Nelson might be one of the Italians.
At 3:40 I think Paulie Walnuts might be one of the Italians.
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Driving a motorcyle in a hood with eyeholes that small must really cut down on your peripheral vision.
Plus the guy doesn't have a helmet.
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Worst drive-by shooting death scene ever. Check the guy in the orange shirt at 3:47.
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The final drug buy, sting scene is here. Nino Brown is "Mr Untouchable" as we just heard, but it's taken about fourteen movie minutes for him to trust Ice T enough to buy drugs directly from him in a warehouse.
That's about right.
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Oh, and the warehouse has an Asian cop leaning into the window with a camera and a big zoom lens.
Nobody notices that even though we're about to see that the warehouse has dozens of CMB henchmen throughout the rafters and catwalks.
Apparently Asians are invisible...must be magic.
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We flash on the upper class computer guy's face. He's remembering something.
Wow, it's a most un-opportune moment for that.
Apparently Washington (Ice T) is Five Oh, man.
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White cop drives his car through the warehouse door.
The car breaks though about three feet above ground.
Apparently the road outside is at the height of plot.
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Step one, White cop saves the briefcase full of money.
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And apparently White cop is wearing black face.
'Cause he's not racist.
Seriously, 6:50 in the above clip, you tell me Judd Nelson isn't wearing black face makeup.
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At 7:01 could they not afford to use the Wilhelm scream?
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Did you know that when a guy gets shot from above, he flies backwards - even if there aren't any signs of the bullets hitting him?
Oh, and he flies into empty cardboard boxes which break his fall.
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Nino hangs upside down to surprise a cop and slit his throat. Luckily the cop and Nino wear exactly the same size uniform.
Nino is now wearing his worst outfit of the movie.
Instead of running, though, he lies in wait and kills Asian cop without Asian cop making a sound.
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8:59 would also have worked for the Wilhelm scream.
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Seriously...look at 9:04 and tell me whether you think White cop is wearing black face makeup for the raid.
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I can't take this anymore. I'll be back next week to wrap up the last fifteen or so minutes of New Jack City complete with the final fall of Nino Brown, the show of restraint from Ice T, Wise Old Black Man's third and final appearance, and Nino Brown's soliloquy.
2 comments:
Yes Judd Nelson did wear black face. As I was pondering that choice, he got a guard's attention by saying "hey Buckwheat" before killing him.
Yeah, not racist at all.
I hadn't noticed the, "Hey, Buckwheat" comment. I'll have to check that out.
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