'We Own the Night' can't hide its flaws

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The new cop drama "We Own the Night" begins with such hustle it takes a good half-hour to realize it's the audience that's being shaken down.

Writer-director James Gray ("Little Odessa," "The Yards") squanders a bevy of resources — from terrific actors to a ripe criminal subculture — in revisiting themes already picked clean in better movies.

"Night" sets the scene with a haunting montage of cop imagery circa 1988.

Young, irresponsible Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix) runs a Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn. Life, especially with arm candy like actress Eva Mendes dripping off him, appears good.

And so, too, is Mr. Phoenix, proving his range expands with every film appearance. We're only minutes into the feature and his performance already has us hooked.

Bobby's brother Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) and their leathery pop (Robert Duvall) don't have the luxury of kicking back like Bobby. They're cops trying to derail a Russian drug cartel, and they tell Bobby their investigation is leading them toward his nightclub.

Bobby shakes off their warning, eager to keep his family ties a secret from his business associates. But events begin spinning out of his control to the point where he must reconsider his allegiances.

Meanwhile, the Russians are hitting back — hard — against the police, and Bobby's family is in their sights.

The early sequences are far from novel, but they do tug us into the story. Father-son conflicts. The Russian mafia. Informant double-crosses. What's not to like?

But Bobby's transformation from hedonist to crime fighter is too seamless to be believed, especially when we're given so little back story as to the family's dynamic. And there's very little that's dynamic about Bobby's brood.