Narc (2002)

Joe Carnahan's first notable feature (anyone seen Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane [1998]?) draws two fine performances from Jason Patric and Ray Liotta as two police officers on the case of a murdered coleague.

Patric's Nick is a suspended undercover officer who is essentially blackmailed to accept the challenge of hunting down whoever murdered a young police officer, who was also undercover, joining forces with Liotta's Henry whose methods don't exactly fall in line with the rule book.

We've seen the murky cop thriller a thousand times before, although the last truly excellent one was possibly End of Watch (2012). James Gray's We Own The Night (2007) was sort of ok, Triple 9 (2016) made a decent fist of it, but Narc came at a time that was only seven years after Heat (1995) and, more pertinently, a mere year after Antoine Fuqua's Training Day.

It's to Narc's credit then that it holds up very well, if not quite hitting the heights of Fuqua's film. With the two leads bringing real authenticity to proceedings with their performances, Narc is a nasty couple of hours, delving into the depths of the drug trade and the world of narcotics, and there's more than enough here to keep your attention, even if the trail being traveled is a well-trodden one. 7.3/10