Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: Racial tension at a California college makes for jumpy and/or violent students.
Biased, pithy comments: Singleton hasn't stopped making angry movies, and this is no exception. Though the cast (including the surprise bonuses of Swanson and Connelly) does well and the camera sees subtle racism and symbolism in every throwaway line and quickie camera angle (like the one showing the whole class, with the Asian students crowded in front), the analogy is laid on thickly and heavily and weighs down the production. The characters are simplistic characatures, the causality too obvious, the lines (now and then) too predictable, the message to plain. It all seems, if you pardon the expression, a little too black and white.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Kristy Swanson, Ice Cube, Jennifer Connelly
Directed by: John Singleton