Wolff rating: FAIR
Plot summary: Two gangsters come to realize that their life in the street is leading to disaster and spiritual ruin.
Biased, pithy comments: What a looker. The first few minutes of the movie I watched four times, and only two of those were because my home theater system was acting up. It's striking, exciting, and compelling. It shows strong colors, smooth camerawork, a deliberate pace for tension, and a strong sense of alienation. Unfortuantely, the rest of the film has all of those features, too---neat colors, distractingly good art direction, no real speed, and zero connection with the characters. I'd like to say, well, it's a movie about black ghetto gangster types, and I'm a white, small-town non-felon, but...dang it, I couldn't tell the difference between the moral paths of the two main characters, and the languid pacing left me aching for the story to finally resolve so I could go to bed. Watkins and Hicks, the two female supporting actors, are the only characters who seem to have any rich emotions (and Watkins the only actor in the whole production who had been taught to ennunciate---something to do with having been raised in Des Moines, I think). So, a great film for budding production designers and cinematographers, but needed another few rounds with a professional script doctor and some questioning of its underlying theme---both of these characters kill, steal, and deal drugs, yet they deserve unconditional redemption without pennance? Seems to me they were getting away with murder, literally.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: DMX, Nas, Hassan Johnson, Taral Hicks, Tionne Watkins.
Directed by: Hype Williams