Rating of
3/4
"Narc" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/27/11
A detective discharged after the accidental shooting of a pregnant bystander is partnered with a veteran detective with a reputation for excessive force to track down the killers who murdered an undercover cop. In the highly overpopulated genre of the cop thriller, Narc is neither the most original or most action packed, but what it does strongly is in the details. Carnahan is obviously influenced by the gritty cop dramas of the 1970s, particularly the likes of Serpico and The French Connection and the result is a believable character study of the men trapped in the grimy world they are trying to bring to justice. It features dialogue that's not exactly high art, but always rings true (even in the unsentimental domestic drama involving Patric and his wife) which combined with the solid central performances make you actually feel submerged in his twilight world. Carnahan is perhaps occasionally a little too filter happy and gimmicky in his direction and the ending feels a little too neat considering the grittiness of the rest of the story, but if you like modern cop dramas such as The Wire and The Shield, you should enjoy this.
