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Verdict: Has true grittiness, but the plot's a little murky and the characters a little too familiar.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Narc" is all fuel but not enough fire. Ray Liotta and Jason Patric give riveting, high-octane performances in a movie that simply refuses to ignite.

Writer/director Joe Carnahan has a good movie in his head. He wants to take us back to the gritty little cop pictures of the '70s, movies like "The French Connection" and "Serpico." He gets the tone right and his filmmaking is blazingly kinetic, but the plot and how it unfolds aren't as gripping as they should be. Still, he's worth applauding for not making yet another formulaic buddy-cop movie in which they bicker, bond, etc., etc.

In the crackling first scene, undercover agent Nick Tellis (Patric) runs after a dealer, with the camera running alongside, recording his every bounce and turn. But the chase ends badly, and Tellis is reduced to a kind of consultant.

Eighteen months later, he's lured back onto the streets when he's asked to help on a case involving a murdered cop. The dead man's partner, Henry Oak (Ray Liotta), has been temporarily pulled from the case because he's taken it so personally — as in pummeling potential suspects to a bloody pulp. The higher-ups figure that, as a team, Tellis and Oak will find the killer, hopefully without killing anyone else.

Liotta, who's bulked up so much that he looks as solid as an oak trunk, and Patric, who's always had a kind of edgy feel, work well together. A lot of the picture focuses on their relationship, especially as Patric comes to suspect that Liotta's partner may not have been the saintly dear departed he's been made out to be by Liotta. After all, narcotics is always dirty work.

Unfortunately, the film as a whole doesn't have the spark and tension of their exchanges. A lot of it is hard to follow, and a drawn-out scene in a warehouse goes on much too long. "Narc" has plenty of true grittiness and style to spare, but it probably could've used one more draft.

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