New Jack City

"They're a new breed of gangster. The new public enemy. The new family of crime."

1991 1h 41m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

🍅

81%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.6

IMDB

★6.7TMDB · 648🍅81%Rotten Tomatoes●61Metacritic★6.6IMDB · 41,253

ThrillerCrimeDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.

“They're a new breed of gangster. The new public enemy. The new family of crime.”

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Cast

Wesley Snipes
Nino Brown
Ice-T
Scotty Appleton
Allen Payne
Garald "Gee Money" Welles
Chris Rock
Pookie
Mario Van Peebles
Stone
Michael Michele
Selina
Bill Nunn
Duh Duh Duh Man
Russell Wong
Park

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mario Van Peebles
Writers: Thomas Lee Wright, Barry Michael Cooper, Thomas Lee Wright
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.6× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

35 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mario Van Peebles, shot by Francis Kenny. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michel Colombier. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Steven Kemper shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Wesley Snipes and Ice-T and Allen Payne carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "They're a new breed of gangster. The new public enemy. The new family of crime.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0102526 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mario Van Peebles directs. Francis Kenny behind the camera. Michel Colombier scores. Steven Kemper cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 5.6× over at the box office.
235 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Directed by Mario Van Peebles, shot by Francis Kenny. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Michel Colombier. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Steven Kemper shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Wesley Snipes and Ice-T and Allen Payne carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "They're a new breed of gangster. The new public enemy. The new family of crime.".
8IMDB entry: tt0102526 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 10 themes, including "drug dealer", "new york city", "street gang", "undercover agent".

The technical file

Cinematography: Francis Kenny
Original score: Michel Colombier
Editing: Steven Kemper
Production design: Charles C. Bennett
Costume design: Bernard Johnson
Makeup / hair: Diane Hammond
Sound: Patrick Cyccone Jr.
Stunt coordinator: Jery Hewitt
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $8,500,000
Box office: $47,624,253
Return: 560% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: New Jack City (1991)
Rotten Tomatoes: 81% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 61/100
IMDB rating: 6.6/10 · 41,253 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win & 6 nominations total

Also by

Mario Van Peebles

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb280390232022-08-28
★ 6/10
New Jack City is convoluted, contrived, and heavy-handed, ending with a caption warning us to “confront the [drug] problem realistically, without empty slogans and promises”. Well, the characters in the movie certainly eschew empty slogans in favor of some of the most memorable catchphrases ever committed to film (“Sit your five-dollar ass down before I make change,” “I want to shoot you so bad, my d*ck's hard,” etc., etc.), but it might be a bit of a stretch to say that they deal with the problem realistically – and it’s actually the little things, such as our old friend the Red Digital Readout, that cast doubt over the proceedings; conversely, the elephant in the room – i.e., the taking over and conversion into a huge crack house of an entire apartment complex – is based on fact (the hardest things to believe are sometimes the most veridical; compare the upside down-flying commercial airplane in Flight). The script is sometimes platitudinous, sometimes downright nonsensical, but always, as I hinted above, endlessly entertaining and quotable. Similarly, the plot and is underdeveloped but not shallow, and the film overall has its heart in the right place. This is a vibrant movie, but it's not just for people who like bright colors; NJC knows the importance of looking beyond appearances. A scene of revelatory intertextuality has the antagonists watching Scarface and reaching the conclusion that the only thing Tony Montana ever did wrong was getting “careless.” And yet, this eye-opening irony is inexplicably lost on rappers like Lil Wayne and Tyga (both of whom have referred to themselves as ‘Young Nino’; don't they remember or care that Nino Brown at one point literally uses a little girl as a human shield?), making them twice as dumb as the people who watch Scarface and leave with the impression that Tony Montana is a role model. All things considered, NJC is a rather uneven effort whose weaker moments get by on sheer style, reaching a noirish state where what is said and done takes a backseat to how it is said and how it is done – and in that sense Wesley Snipes’s star-making performance (and what should have been a breakthrough role for Chris Rock), supported by a rock-solid (as well as eclectic, ranging from Judd Nelson to Bill Cobbs, who even then was playing the Old Man) ensemble cast and Mario Van Peebles's confident direction, is the glue that holds the film together.

Production companies