Does anyone agree that these are the movie's two biggest flaws?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Film and Television Discussion
Bugz_moran — 15 years ago(January 15, 2011 09:14 PM)
I wanted to know if anybody agrees with me or wanted to debate these flaws. I recently watched this movie on tv (I haven't watched this film in years) and these two things that stood out to me as the biggest flaws. They're both are essentially the same thing: Somebody says something outlandish and everyone immediately believes them.
It's unrealistic and is just emotional storytelling. When it happens it hooks you in and you feel for what's going on. But it doesn't hold up when you rewatch it. But New Jack City is a flashy film that's not very realistic but I think it pushes it in these two parts.
The first happens when Schotty is outed as a cop by Christopher Williams. All he says is I knew I recognized him, he's a cop. Something like that. After he says that everyone immediately starts shooting at Schotty. Paranoid? Itchy trigger fingers? They don't even debate or need any evidence to see if it's true, they just take him at his word like they did with trusting Schotty in the first place.
The second happens at the end with the court case. Nino tells the court that Christopher Willaims is the one behind the operation. Everyone believes him. Even though they have evidence, undercover cop involved, and witnesses to the contrary. Prosecutors hear and see a lot of crazy things that people do to get out of a trial. They take it all at his word because it's not like Nino has any reason to lie. It's not like they went to trial because the District Attorney built a case against him or anything like that. -
tiffanykk2002 — 15 years ago(January 19, 2011 09:04 AM)
I don't know if either of those really hold up as flaws.
When they all start shooting at Scottie, OF COURSE they're paranoid. They run the biggest crack organization in the city. Why would they need to debate that? This isn't a court room, these are the streets. If you realize that you are in the middle of a set up, you're not going to take the time to examine evidence. That is pretty unrealistic.
Also, I think a bigger flaw was that Kareem was in the courtroom in the first place. He could have easily been implicated. Why would he even be there? Otherwise, I think you're right. They just arrest him right then and there. That was pretty unrealistic. -
Emiabambinacara — 15 years ago(March 25, 2011 08:39 PM)
Well, they did have Kareem on various wire tapes boasting about all the power he had and about how he ran everything. He is also the one that actually showed Pookie the ropes. Perhaps, if they would have taken the time to have the prosecuting attorney say something along the line of, "place him under arrest. We have him on tape as one of the major players of the CMB" or something like that, it wouldn't have seemed so disjointed.
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Sparky48 — 11 years ago(August 10, 2014 11:05 AM)
Actually, the "Pookie tapes" portrayed Kareeem in more of subordinate role with the CMB rather than authoritative. It depicts him taking Pookie to G-mony, and it is G-mony who makes the decision on "promoting" Pookie to a higher job. If Kareem was the actual head of the CMB, I would think that he would made the decision automatically on his own without referring to G-mony or anyone else.
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nbgums — 12 years ago(June 21, 2013 03:39 PM)
If the second point isn't a huge flaw, it at least qualifies as suspension of reality and sloppy writing. Nino says, "he did it," and they run across the room and arrest someone else? What a brilliant defense strategy! Blame someone else in spite of all the evidence, of course they will believe you. Undercover already established who Kareem was, and if the DA could build a case, they would have already. It's not as if Nino's testimony carries enough weight to arrest, much less prosecute. The whole courtroom scene was cringe-worthy.
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RobofNJ — 3 years ago(March 31, 2023 11:04 PM)
But mistakes in courtrooms happen in the time, I don't believe that was unrealistic. Plus remember Nino had money to buy off judges. And it's not like the judge didn't punish him. It's just that certain technicality, as is made clear, let Nino off more easily than it should have.
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Panthro44 — 11 years ago(July 27, 2014 07:58 PM)
The biggest flaw and most unrealistic part about the movie is how the CMB took over The Carter. lol
Yep. That was a gaping hole of a flaw right there. If he really did do that, that operation wouldn't last a week. For starters, it's wide open and stationary. The openness would've been a huge downfall. Any cop could've posed as a staggering junkie. Hell, a dozen could've done it, at once. An Army sniper takes out the lookouts on the roof.
First, they could have a couple cops play junkie and case the building. Locate and block off any escape routes (I didn't see any helicopter pads on the roof, so the ground was the only probable way out). Or they could use those same blueprints Nino used to start the whole thing.
Tenants not even going to work. That's red flags to businesses around town. Plus, how were they paying for their hit? And they were allowed to go to work, why wouldn't someone rat to a boss to get a S.W.A.T. team down there?
Of course, we're using 2000's thinking for a 1986 movie, so, in fairness, we should be thinking in an 80's mindset. Still, there were S.W.A.T. in the 80's, plus people had to go to work, or if they didn't, it wouldn't look right.
But yeah. The whole thing would've last a couple weeks at the most. A month is pushing it. Maybe for police districts to plan an attack. -
RobofNJ — 3 years ago(March 31, 2023 11:06 PM)
This isn't the South Bronx, or Canarsie or Cypress Hills or Levittown. This is Harlem, where judges let off criminals like Nino on a regular basis. The police are even accused of not doing enough by an old war vet in the beginning. It's the complacency of the police themselves.
Emily Blunt