Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
What if your own family stood in the way of everything you worked for? Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) has forsaken his name to escape his family and their tradition in law enforcement to pursue his ambitions as a Brooklyn nightclub owner. As he turns a blind eye to the drug dealers around him he comes face to face with the family he abandoned when his brother (Mark Wahlberg) and father (Robert Duvall) crack down on the club. Now Bobby must choose a side. Is he going to turn informant or will he help run the biggest crime ring in New York history?System Requirements:Run Time: 117 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CRIME & CRIMINALS Rating: R UPC: 043396225312 Manufacturer No: 22531

Amazon.com:
In We Own the Night, Joaquin Phoenix, whose eyes burn with sullen anger even when he's looking at the woman he loves, plays Bobby Green, a nightclub manager in the 1980s who gets caught between his blood family he tried to leave behind--a long line of police officers--and his chosen family of friends and business partners, who turn out to be drug dealers. His father (Robert Duvall) and brother (Mark Wahlberg) want Bobby to help their investigation, but Bobby resists--until the conflict takes a brutal turn. Writer/director James Gray wears his influences on his sleeve; he's clearly seen every movie that Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola ever made and aspires to follow in their footsteps. The familiarity of the movie's territory dilutes its impact, but the plot of We Own the Night remains unpredictable, the performances have a clean vitality, and Gray's moody visual style brings some life to the genre. Phoenix (Walk the Line) dives into his role, sifting through layers of guilt and familial resentment; Wahlberg and Duvall play parts they've essentially played a dozen times, but do so with commitment and integrity. Also featuring Eva Mendes (Ghost Rider) as Bobby's devoted girlfriend, who questions just how much she'll have to give up for him. --Bret Fetzer

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Rating : - A Gritty Crime Drama
Shadow Watcher
Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake
WE OWN THE NIGHT is a riveting cops-and-robbers thriller that deals with the Russian Mob in New York and Brooklyn during the 1980s.

It's filled with an array of complex characters, terrific performances and exciting action scenes, particularly a shoot-out in a "stash house" and an auto chase that redefines that kind of sequence.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as the manager of a Brooklyn nightclub, owned by the Russian Mob. He stays uninvolved with any illegal activities that may be going on under his nose, until his brother (Mark Wahlberg) and father (Robert Duvall), both high-ranking cops, approach him to help bring down a major drug dealer operating out of the club. Phoenix, initially refuses, but after the cops raid the club and, subsequently, Wahlberg becomes the victim of an assassination attempt, he agrees to go undercover for the police.

Eva Mendes co-stars as Phoenix's girl friend.

When it comes to gritty big city police dramas, it appears that director James Gray is going to be the natural successor to both Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorsese.

- Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)