New Jack City (1991)

A crime lord ascends to power and becomes megalomaniacal while a maverick police detective vows to stop him.

Director:

Mario Van Peebles

Writers:

Thomas Lee Wright (story), Thomas Lee Wright (screenplay),

Stars:

Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Allen Payne

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Wesley Snipes	...	Nino Brown
Ice-T	...	Scotty Appleton (as Ice T)
Allen Payne	...	Gee Money
Chris Rock	...	Pookie
Mario Van Peebles	...	Stone
Michael Michele	...	Selina
Bill Nunn	...	Duh Duh Duh Man
Russell Wong	...	Park
Bill Cobbs	...	Old Man
Christopher Williams	...	Kareem Akbar
Judd Nelson	...	Nick Peretti
Vanessa Williams	...	Keisha
Tracy Camilla Johns	...	Uniqua
Anthony DeSando	...	Frankie Needles
Nick Ashford	...	Reverend Oates

Storyline

The gangster Nino has a gang who call themselves Cash Money Brothers. They get into the crack business and not before long they make a million dollars every week. A cop, Scotty, is after them. He tries to get into the gang by letting an ex-drug addict infiltrate the gang, but the attempt fails miserably. The only thing that remains is that Scotty himself becomes a drug pusher.

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Plot Keywords:

gang | drugs | police | power | new york city | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, drug content, sensuality and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 March 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Cidade do Novo Paraíso

Filming Locations:

Grant's Tomb - 122th Street & Riverside Drive, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,500,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$47,624,253 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Jackson/McHenry Company,The, Jacmac Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ice-T almost refused the role as Scottie because he felt that if the film was a failure it would negatively affect his rap career. During an interview with MTV's Kurt Loder back in 1990, Ice T stated to Loder that he hated the police due to his past connection with the Crips. However, not only was the film a hit, but it also proved to give him his huge break as an actor.

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Goofs

Pookie's time inside the Carter was extensively videotaped, and those tapes, which included G Money giving the order to kill Pookie after his cover is blown, were all saved by the cops. Despite all that taped evidence that could be used to either convict G Money and several others and/or flip them as witnesses against Nino, the operation is declared a total failure and the tapes are never used.

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Quotes

Scotty Appleton: I wanna shoot you so bad, my dick's hard!

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #19.117 (2011)

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Soundtracks

" (THERE YOU GO) TELLING ME NO AGAIN"
Written and Produced by Keith Sweat and Bobby Wooten
Performed by Keith Sweat
Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment

User Reviews

Am I My Brother's Keeper...

This movie was a surprise. I remember Mario van Peeble's father's "Watermelon Man", an amusing comedy that turns anti-white about half-way through and winds up rather a racist tract. It's almost a convention in movies about African-Americans who seem destructive to themselves or others that they are turned on to dope by white guys. Or, if they retain their rectitude, it's the white guys that are at the head of the horde of local pushers. Of course white women flock to the heroes, etc. We've seen it hundreds of times. But this one is different. The majority of performers are African-Americans, both the cops and the bad guys, neither of them perfect in their goodness or their evil. The characters seem to choose their own destinies for a change. Wesley Snipes is not given a loving trophy blonde. There is a token white cop, Judd Nelson, who was my supporting player in "From the Hip," an extraordinarily good film itself, who is permitted to say, "It's not a black thing. It's not a white thing." Crack is the problem here, not race. We're all in this together, which, in these days, is a pretty progressive statement. It's strictly a genre film. There is craftsmanship in it, if no noticeable attempt at depth, but it's well and stylishly done too. Van Peebles knows how to place the camera and when to cut. The performances are excellent for a film of this type. Snipes especially is a fine physical actor. It winds up with the expected shootout in an empty warehouse or factory. I'd kind of put off seeing this on TV, afraid of wincing through the prejudices I anticipated being expressed, and I was pleasantly surprised to find them completely absent here.