Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

truthfromabove Spoilers Im rating this movie a 3, but that being said, i have the DVD and i never change it when its on TV. I find the TV version even funnier than the uncensored. First about me, im a 25-30 year old White male that was not brought up with a difficult life. I say this cause I've read some other reviews that talk about how pin point this movie is. I hope to god they are wrong, there is not a level head in this movie. And none of the African Americans i am friends with, have ever acted anything like this.Jody (our main character) tries to act gangster, but clearly is soft. The movie gave me the feeling that if his friend "P" was not around, he probably would have a better life. But he looks up to his friend, who spews lines that are border line retarded, and Jody takes them like gospel. Jody treats his girlfriend/ baby momma (played by Taraji Henson) like crap. I am troubled by her acting in this movie, not sure if its lack of guidance from the director, or just her inexperience at the time. But later in her career she proves to be a great actress, just not here. "P" played by Omar Gooding, is an apple that was thrown from the tree. He needs to go back to Nickelodeon, and leave the grown up roles to his cousin, Cuba. Ving Rhames actually acts fine, just has a poorly written role. Now the reason i love this movie; Certain scenes, are so over the top, they are awesome. Jody, at one point gets punkd and beat up for his bike, by a bunch of school kids. Instead of manning up, he gets his friend "P" and gun, and make the kids stand there and take a beating at gunpoint. Which ends up with "P" spanking one like its his own child. Every scene with snoop dog has great one liners. And all these one liners are even better on the TV version, because the N Bomb gets substituted with "chicken". Towards the end of the movie, Snoop rolls up on Jody in a drive by, and once again Jody hits the fetal position, instead of fighting back. And cries cause he thought he was shot, but wasn't even close. There are many more scenes like these, but you need to just watch it. In summary, i rate this movie a three, but i love watching it. From an actual critical stand point, John Singleton should be embarrassed for this representation of Americans. best quote; snoop "I hate you too lil chicken"

tim-black77 Jody is a unemployed immature young man who isn't committed to anything or anyone but himself. He has two children out of wedlock he does not financially support. He leeches off his mother living at home. He tries to act like a gangster in the streets. That act does not fool anyone in his neighborhood. He's thought of as soft. His mother takes up with a veteran gangster called Mel. Jody feels left out as Mel becomes the man of the house. Mel tries to school Jody on how to be a real man. Jody doesn't take the lesson. Mel and Jody have a fight. It's like when a older stronger lion chases a weaker younger out the pride to fend for themselves. Jody is out on his own.He shacks up with one of his kids moms. She has some kind of relationship with a hard core gangster that beens in prison called Rodney. When Rodney comes home he causes problems for Jody. It's time for Jody to be a man and face this hard core gangster. Jody unable to kill him only wounds him, but it sends a strong enough message he will protect his own. Shook up and scared he turns to Mel who without words understands what Jody is going through. Mel uses his street mentality to put Jody back together and calm him. The two share a bond now. Jody leaves his mother's house to become a man on his own with one of his mother's children. The one he loves.Tyrese Gibson was stellar as Jody. Great performance. As a viewer I got caught up in his story because I thought he was an immature punk at times and felt sorry for him other times when Mel and Rodney backed him down. Ving Rhames gave a powerful showing as Mel. When he has Jody in a headlock letting him know what he would do to a weak man in prison was real to the bone. Ving Rhames commands every part he is in. Snoop Dogg was low down dirty Rodney. Snoop Dogg's best acting I've seen. He owned that part. He played the bad guy to perfection.John Singleton's best movie. Much better than Boyz n the Hood. More real and powerful with heart. I expected Mel was going to have to deal with Rodney. Singleton did not go that route and out smarted this viewer.

senorjuez This is not an uplifting film, nor does it try to be. A young black man trying to survive in the hood and dealing with the mess he created. The typical stereotypes abound. Unemployed, illegitimate child and crime. The main character is always conscious of the possibility of being killed on the streets. Part of the plot is that a part of him wants to escape, but he knows no other way to exist.You could sit in the passenger seat of a car driving through Compton or Watts, run a camcorder out the window for about 90 minutes and come up with the same thing.(Provided you survive the trip) There are a few strange twists in this film, such as the mother-son dynamic and the battle of good vs. evil featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg.

adrian-j-hill I say "Awful" with a question mark in my title because I said that this movie was horrible in front of my coworkers and they vehemently denied it. As I sat in utter disbelief coming to the realization that they truly liked this movie, they sat in equal utter disbelief coming to the realization that I thought it was pure trash. Now, I saw this movie 1 and 1/2 times and they saw it more than me, so their defense was more profound than my critique, but nonetheless it made me take a step back and re-review it. I saw it when it came out, but these were the first people I had met in 2 years who didn't think this movie was awful. And this wasn't based on region, class, age, or any demographic worth noting. Everybody I discussed this movie with thought it was completely ridiculous. Until now. So let me throw in my 2 cents to compare and discuss among others.To understand why I hate this movie, I have to bring up others. Boyz N Tha Hood and Menace II Society had characters in it that were actually likable, and even though they did things that some considered immoral, it wouldn't be immoral in their different set of rules. For example, Kane and Tre, did things and reacted in ways to situations based on their life and the rules in the hood. Doughboy and Wax may have been thugs and criminals, but they didn't do things in excess of rules put in place. None of them started pointless fights or disrespected others for no reason, and all of them tried to do "right" by the rules. So, if you have a character in a movie who is supposed to be like, he by definition has to be likable. Doughboy, Kane, Tre, Wax and even the murder happy O-Dogg were likable in the context of the hood. Conversely characters like the racist cop and the dude that dropped a dime on Kane and O-Dogg (after Kane beat him like that boxin on TV) were unlikeable and rightfully so. Adding this in, 2Pac's character in Poetic Justice also falls along these lines. Now take Baby Boy. I couldn't stand any character other than Ving Rhames and the mother. Ving was an ex con trying to do right and Tyrese tried him one too many times and got hemmed up and later decked. And the mother had one (and formerly another) bum of a son who refused to grow up and she tried to educate him and his girl until finally she had enough and rightfully kicked him out. But Tyrese as the main character had zero redeeming qualities. He ran his mouth way too much and was a worthless father and boyfriend. Plus, he used the memory of his dead brother to guilt his mother into takin care of him. Kane and Tre were trying to grow up and even if they had childish backward views on certain issues, they were trying. Tyrese wasn't. His girlfriend was even worse. She knew he cheated on her and still stayed with him. She let Snoop barge in her house without any concern for her child. My coworkers said I judged her without knowing her background. Look, all I had to go off of was her chickenhead behavior in the movie. Like Tyrese, she ran her mouth too much and was loud and was the cause for her own troubles. And as the two main characters you were supposed to connect with them, I didn't - not because I couldn't forgive them for their flaws, but because they didn't do anything to deserve it. Every bad thing that happened to them, they facilitated it and wanted us to feel sorry for them. The only reason these two worthless idiots are together is because neither one of em could handle Snoop. Please. Gimme a break. We may all know people like them or have friends like them and while we wouldn't bad mouth them, at some point we have to stop making excuses and call a spade a spade, or in this case, an idiot an idiot.So this moves me to the secondary characters. They were all idiots and exaggerated stereotypes that ALWAYS took the low ride. Omar Gooding was hilarious as the over hard friend. And that girl from Tyrese's girls work was awful. Again, I am aware that there are people like this, but NOT 24-7. These characters RARELY did anything right. They were all unlikeable as people in general. This is unrealistic. And every scene was exaggerated to the extreme. When Tyrese's girl was talking to her friend and her man came up behind her and started hittin it? Again, I'm not sayin it's totally unrealistic, but it's a bit much. At no point in this film did I connect with these characters in a good way. I saw friends and family playing these roles, but they were the friends and family I made fun of or disliked.Overall, this movie was crap, made even worse with scenes like Omar Gooding acting all hard, and the ridiculous womb scene. I laughed AT this movie as opposed to WITH it and although my coworkers made me rethink my stance, I just couldn't bring myself to change it.