New Jack City: Two-Disc Special Edition DVD Set Review

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Title: New Jack City: Two-Disc Special Edition

Region: One

Genre: Crime Drama Action

Stars: Wesley Snipes, Ice T, Chris Rock, Mario Van Peebles, Judd Nelson, Allen Payne, Bill Nunn, Bill Cobbs, Vanessa Williams, Christopher Williams, Nick Ashford, Flavor Flav, and Fab 5 Freddy

Writer: Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper

Based On A Story By: Thomas Lee Wright

Director: Mario Van Peebles

Feature length: 101 minutes

Extras: Feature Length Audio Commentary With Actor and Director Mario Van Peebles, NJC: A Hip-Hop Classic Featurette, The Road To New Jack City Featurette, Harlem World: A Walk Inside Featurette, New Jack City Music Videos, Theatrical Trailer

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and French (Dubbed In Quebec) Language Dolby Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Single Size Two-Disc Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 34

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 1991/DVD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Warner Brothers

Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

In the late half of the 1980s through the early 1990s, there was an explosion of films directed by African Americans that dealt with specific facets of the African American experience. Filmmakers like Spike Lee and John Singleton spearheaded a movement that opened the doors for many African American filmmakers and Actors and in the process many rap and hip-hop music stars crossed over into mainstream films in just about every genre imaginable. In some cases the films developed at times into clichés to be poked fun at by other African American filmmakers, such as Keenan Ivory Wayans who produced “Don’t Be A Menace In South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood.” Now days the crossover of hip-hop and rap stars into mainstream cinema is almost taken for granted. L.L. Cool J, Ice Cube, Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, and Will Smith have appeared in various Hollywood motion pictures. Will Smith in particular is so popular among American audiences as well as a worldwide box office champion for the majority of the films he has appeared in that it is easy to forget he started out on MTV with the hit music video “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” When “New Jack City” was released theatrically having a leading man be a rap music star was relatively new. Films were just introducing artists like Ice T to mainstream American audiences the way “Yo! MTV Raps!” brought hip-hop to the suburbs. Many people identify Wesley Snipes as “Blade” or recognize him from one of the many high grossing action pictures he appeared like “Passenger 57,” but back in 1991 Snipes was probably still best known for his appearances in Spike Lee’s movies like “Mo Better Blues” and “Jungle Fever.” Snipes like many African American movie stars can be seen in a lot of supporting roles in films going back to the mid 1980s at least.

Like his father before him, Mario Van Peebles made his feature film directorial debut in a film that polarized audiences and now in hindsight is a time capsule of an era long gone. The fashion and music of “New Jack City” now look as dated as John Travolta’s movie star making 1970s hit “Saturday Night Fever.” Practically everyone in “New Jack City” with the exception of Ice T has a flat top. Even Judd Nelson, who was a classmate of Mario Van Peebles, sports a flat top like haircut in the film. Very few films are timeless. If you want to see how quickly things become dated, look at Cameron Crowe’s romantic comedy drama “Singles,” which came out roughly a year after “New Jack City” and see just how dated Seattle grunge music and fashion appears now. Ultimately what makes a film rise above the trappings of time is what it has to say about the culture it was addressing. “Saturday Night Fever” is still entertaining to watch today because at the film’s core is a universal story about a young man rising out of his environment to seek out something better. “New Jack City” is in part about how the appearance of crack in Regan era inner city neighborhoods created dangerous urban kingpins as well as distrust and paranoia among a cross section of Americans regardless of race. As Judd Nelson’ character points out in the film “It’s a death thing.” There are no poppy fields or factories building automatic weapons in Harlem. Thus the cops of “New Jack City” have to be more streetwise and in a sense behave more like vice detectives and integrate into the neighborhoods they protect and in some cases go above the law to track and bring down a criminal because traditional police work alone may not work. A character like Nino Brown (played in the film by Wesley Snipes) is way too sharp to just get picked up and arrested for something trivial.

“New Jack City” is not the best crime drama ever made and certainly may not be considered a classic of the genre by some, but it’s message is still just as timely today as it was when the film was released in theaters. The best performances in the film belong to Wesley Snipes, Allen Payne, Ice T, and Chris Rock, who looks like a teenager in this film and delivers his best acting performance ever. Peebles own role is rather flat and Judd Nelson is all but wasted throughout the film saying lines like “Oh is this a black thing?” with sarcasm. Flavor Flav and Fab 5 Freddy have cameos in the film as themselves. Fab 5 Freddy actually served as an Associate Producer on the film. Allen Payne had a recurring part in the last two seasons of “The Cosby Show” when the film was released. He has since appeared in films like “The Perfect Storm” with George Clooney.

Mario Van Peebles delivers a very articulate and at times quite eloquent feature length audio commentary for this new two-disc special edition DVD set. He is quite open to discussing the film’s influences as well as giving thanks to the people who helped reach his first feature film directorial job, which includes none other than Clint Eastwood. He commentary is very scene specific too. Mario Van Peebles also participates first hand in a number of the featurettes included on the second DVD. These are “The Road To New Jack City” (28:09), which features brand videotaped interview clips with Ice T, Allen Payne, Judd Nelson, Chris Rock, and Wesley Snipes. The featurette also revisits many of the real Harlem locations as well as the 59^th Street Bridge location where the film’s memorable opening sequence was shot. Another companion featurette entitled “NJC: A Hip-Hop Classic” (20:17) explores how the music of the film was used as a part of it’s marketing. At the time when “New Jack City” was released, films listing the participation of music artists as a means to reach a larger audience were relatively new, but today it’s a given. My personal favorite among the extra value features is “Harlem World: A Walk Inside” (10:16), which begins within the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and branches out to various Harlem locations where the viewer along with Mario Van Peebles and his kids learn a lot about the history of Harlem dating all the way back to the Dutch settlements when it was all called New Amsterdam. A reel of music videos (13:31) that feature Ice T singing “New Jack Hustler (Nino’s Theme)”, “I’m Dreamin’” by Christopher Williams, and “I Wanna Sex You Up” by Color Me Badd. And the film’s theatrical trailer (1:55) wrap up the bonus features within this DVD set.

The feature film itself is presented in a matted 16 by 9 enhanced (1.85:1) aspect ratio which aside from a bit of shimmering in the beginning is remarkably free of blemishes. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack seemed rather low. I had to raise the volume on my receiver five decibels higher than normal to take the sound in. A French (Dubbed In Quebec) Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack is also included along with English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded as options. The main menus on both discs are animated with scenes from the film while the subsequent interactive menus are standard still frames that are easy to navigate. “New Jack City: Two-Disc Special Edition” is worth revisiting now that it is available on DVD-Video at retailers on and offline courtesy of Warner Home Video.

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