Director: Joe Carnahan
Stars: Jason Patric, Ray Liotta, Krista Bridges, Chi McBride, Lloyd Adams, Dan Leis, Alan Van Sprang
Certificate: 18
Running time: 102 minutes

NARC is the story of a detective persuaded back into active service to assist in the murder investigation of a fellow police officer. The normal clichés are present such as the tearful wife of the reinstated detective, and the mismatched partners on the murder case.

Jason Patric stars as Nick Tellis, an undercover narcotics officer who has been suspended for 18 months following a terrible accident that occurred whilst he was working on a case. Whilst chasing down a suspect, he opened fire, and a stray bullet caught a pregnant woman. He is called back into action to assist in a murder case, due mainly to his undercover knowledge and contacts. Patric is superb in the role, and brilliantly displays the emotions that are running through his character: the fear of being sucked into the drug culture that he was previously part of; the regret about the accident with the pregnant woman; the need to do the right thing, as he sees so many similarities between the murdered cop and himself.

Ray Liotta plays hard nut Lieutenant Henry Oak, the partner of the murdered cop who has now been assigned to investigate the crime. Liotta excels in this role, and hasn't been this good since Goodfellas. He shows the emotions that would be expected, but also puts across a sinister side, as you never quite know if he's entirely on the level, especially as he often displays a smothered sensitivity.

Much of the film is character driven, and focuses on the two leads, Patric and Liotta. As a result, the supporting cast do not have an awful lot to do, but the others such as Chi McBride as Captain Cheevers, and Busta Rhymes as Beery are all very good in their limited screen time.

The director, Joe Carnahan, who also wrote the screenplay, does an excellent job and mixes various styles, such as a handheld opening chase sequence and the type of grainy cinematography that is normally present in such a film.

The film is very enjoyable, with a few twists and turns along the way as the new cop pairing go about following leads, and trying to find suspects. The performances of the two leads set this film apart from the usual cop films.

There will be comparisons between NARC and Training Day, which was successful last year, and is also very good. Both are character driven, both have the mismatched partners as well as the other clichés, and both have a lead pairing excelling in their roles. One difference is that while the two leads in Training Day received Academy Award nominations for their portrayals, indeed Denzel Washington scooped the Oscar for his, the two leads here have been overlooked. This is a shame, as the performances are as good as, if not better, than those in Training Day, and as good as any that I have seen of this year's nominees.