New Jack City (1991)

[Neville]

Seriously, people, what's the hype with this movie? Filmmaking is amateurish, script is unidimensional and hamfisted when it aims for drama or moral lessosn, acting save Ice T is crap... And the editing... this is the most badly edited film I've ever seen, and I'm into Hong Kong action movies. Do a couple of nods to both Scarfaces and some rap music make a movie? Because I don't think so.

People cringe when they see how low Mario Van Peebles and Wesley Snipes' careers have fallen. I don't do now, if this is the best they can do...

[Ash]

You have to remember that this was released back in 1991...which was a whole different "era" in film than by today's standards.
1991 was also when gangsta rap was really starting to come into its own and this film was heralded as a great piece of cinema mixed with hardcore hip-hop themes at the time.

Do I like the film?
Not especially.

I just look at it as a period piece from the early 90's.

I do however, love Ice-T as a rapper and

New Jack Hustler	Small | Large

was one of his most popular songs.
I remember blasting his music as loud as I could on my car stereo back when I was 17 years old  in 1991.
Ahhh...fond memories of cruising in my car with friends & lookin' for chicks who wanted to give it up!

That song still holds up today unlike most of the garbage that rappers put out these days.
The rap made today is s**t compared to the songs that veterans like Ice-T, Ice Cube, N.W.A, and classic Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre released back in the day.
Back in the early 90's, rappers had stories to tell in their music.
These days, there's absolutely no inspiration...all rap sounds the same now.
It's all about the money rappers can make now.  It's become diluted and stale.

Still, I don't care what anyone says, Ice-T can rap!

[Neville]

Yeah, well, I guess that if I was an American I would have memories from that particular moment and I would feel different about the whole thing. But imagine watching the film without knowing much about crack and the criminality it helped to unleash, and you'll understand how I felt about it.

[RCMerchant]

I totally agree,this movie sucked.I enjoyed Original Gangsters by Larry Cohen much more.As far as rap music goes...I lived in NYC in the mid 80's,when it was getting on its feet. I like Easy E, Ice T, and NWA. But as far as most rap,I can't stand it.When a buncha white kids drive by my house,with the bass goin'"BUMPBUMPBUMPBUMP" as loud as it possibly be,I wanna throw my shoe at 'em and yell something like"You young punks! You wouldn't know good music if it was jammed up your ass! "Of course,I would be sitting on my porch listening to Iggy and the Stooges,so whatta I know...

[akiratubo]

I remember the praise this movie was getting and how enthusiastically people talked about it.  My family rented it and ... to this day, it's the only movie we've all agreed to just turn off.  We were all just BORED by it.

[Yaddo 42]

When I saw your name on the thread, Neville, I was curious to see your non-American reaction.

Ash is right the film made a splash at the time here because of the crack plot line, rap soundtrack and Ice-T's acting, and Mario Van Peeples directing. There were lots of articles and TV news and entertainment show segments about a New Wave of Black Cinema during this era. Black film directors were even rareer then than they are now, so any film with a black director with any mainstream or critical appeal to it was considered part of this budding movement. Also since Mario is the son of Melvin Van Peebles, who directed "Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song" considered a landmark in black and independet cinema, people were pinning hopes to him that haven't panned out. In the late 80s and early 90s directors like Spike Lee, Ernest Dickerson, John Singleton, and the Hughes Brothers were getting a lot of attention and making impressive beginnings in their film careers. Mario Van Peeples was considered part of this movement.

While rap had been building in popularity and influence and there had been a few rap-centric films like Krush Groove and the "Breakin" flicks or films starring rappers, like the Fat Boys in "Disorderlies" and rappers had appeared in a few shows like "Miami Vice", there hadn't been a "serious" mainstream black movie about crack, crime, and hip hop/gangsta rap culture.  MTV had finally accepted that rap was more than a fad, and that gangsta rap was the dominant popular form of the time, replacing poppier stuff like Wil Smith and MC Hammer. Even people who didn't know what rap really was had heard of 2 Live Crew (who weren't gangsta just potty humor and sex obsessed loudmouths pretending to be First Amendment crusaders) and NWA (who were gangsta). Around this time presidential candidate and then governor Bill Clinton would have his confrontation with rapper/writer/gadfly Sista Souljah. Soundscan would shake up how record sales were counted, and prove that rap had overtaken rock in youth popularity. Rap had ARRIVED. "New Jack City" was a case of being in the right place at the right time.

I agree that the film doesn't hold up, I thought it was just blah when I first saw it. Ice-T is good at playing Ice-T, but he is appealing because he admits that acting or rapping is just another hustle like pimping. Judd Nelson tries to look all brooding and dark, but he's the token white guy and everyone knows it. But like a smaller scale version of "Scarface" it is a not very good film that is remembered more for it's influence rather than for any artistic merits.

[BeyondTheGrave]

I agree with Yaddo 42 about "New Jack City" being their at right time. I just saw "Badassss" the movie Mario Van Peebles did about how his father had to overcome all the obstacles to get "Sweet Sweetback" flimed and distubted. "New Jack City" just cashed in on Rap being popular .I have seen New Jack City a bunch of times over the years on network tv and I just never liked it.

Also I don't really know how much influence this movie has. I think maybe rappers becoming actors might be one. When I was into Rap people talked way more about Scarface and mobster movies or Spike Lee movies like "Do the Right Thing". Never heard a word about "New Jack City".

[Yaddo 42]

"Badasssss" is a nice love letter from a son to his father, and I'd like to read Melvin's book at some point, but the way that film uses narration to skip over details was annoying.

"Man, I don't know how it happened, but somehow....."
or
"Man, I don't know how we did it, but....."
or
"Man, I don't know where the money came from, but somehow...."

Way overused in that movie.

I think NJC's influence is felt more inside the film industry rather among fans and viewers. The use of rap on soundtracks for one thing. I agree about rappers acting. Crime films centering on black or minority organized crime rather than just the usual Italian Mafia/Cosa NostraMob/The Organization crime family antics. Black as lead character cops not just supporting players, partners to the white guy in "buddy cop" films, or heroes from 70s era films and blaxploitation.