Reviews

The title of this movie is slightly misleading. It is actually a low budget drama about a sliver of life in the Barrio. Don't expect to see an organized gang of thugs that are terrorizing the neighborhood, and running roughshod over anyone who gets in their way. Don't expect a plot that involves a turf war over who gets permission to sell drugs in the neighborhood. Also don't expect to see any 300 round-a-minute shootouts. Don't expect any butt-naked love scenes in Blood & Tears. In this movie you don't see any clubs that are fronts to hide the profits of crime bosses.If any of the above is your idea of entertainment you will be very disappointed. There is hardly any of the fluff (other than a hip-hop soundtrack) that is normally part of many big studio crime dramas to distract the viewer from the focus of the story.

What you will find is a main character who has to choose between avenging the death of a companion and raising the family that had to do without him during his nine year stint in the Big House. As you will see almost any group of non-whites can be labeled as a gang by mass media. In this urban narrative a few aquaintnces settle their differences with guns. After every scene the picture fades to black as if the closing credits are about to roll. But you'll know when the story is over. The bulk of the movie is profanity filled dialogue with the action occuring once in a while and coming in very short spurts of quick kills.

Blood & Tears looks like a symptom of a fatherless America. Mothers express their concern mainly through nurturing and compassion. While fathers do so through setting rules for their offspring; so they can develop discipline and become productive members of their communities. But when there is no father in the home, and mommy has to be away working, the male child often will seek and find masculine leadership on the street. The result: their only idea of structure is to watch your homeies backs to make sure they stay one step ahead of the law, and not get taken out by a rival crew. Their only concept of manhood lies in their ability to avenge their homey's death and not in their ability to properly raise their children. In fact how will they learn how to be an effective parent if the father is not around, or if the father is in a gang himself?

Even though Blood & Tears is void of a lot of the sensationalism of other "Hood" movies it only scratches the surface of a major survival issue in the barrio. Violence doesn't have to be about: ten square feet of territory,or about what posse gets to distribute illegal narcotics. Sometimes it merely involves an altercation between aquaintances that separate into cliques. Even though turf and dope is not involved, the killings still create problems for law enforcement. The killings still make low-income areas unsafe.

Blood & Tears starts out slow, but picks up when all of the characters involved come together. It shows how someone can get caught up in a cycle of revenge when no one was shown that there is life outside the barrio. But even if you come from the middle or upper-class suburbs you can see the adverse effect of not having an effective father.

Pepsi Cola had a very catchy slogan during the 1980s. But unlike "Pepsi" American Bandstand was NOT the choice of a New Generation! The long running music show had a big part in mainstreaming Rock N' Roll. Long time host Dick Clark had a winner for decades. Adolescents was the backbone of it's audience, butGeneration X was slow to embrace AB because MTV conspired with: syndicated, network and local music video programs to challenge American Bandstand's legacy. Music Videos had very little if any audience interaction, unlike Bandstand. This is regardless of whether the interaction had to do with a studio or television audience. VeeJays merely played videotapes. But on the contrary most television viewers did not have to wait for Noon Eastern on Saturday to see their favorite artists perform. Music Videos from decades prior to the Eighties consisted of footage from American Bandstand and talk or variety shows. But now the producers and directors of videos were no longer limited to the set of American Bandstand. They can shoot their videos on location or on major studio backlots. They had the freedom to use : animation, special effects, or any other format they liked. But during this added dimension in pop music what was the viewing experience like for American Bandstand? You tuned in to watch other people dance and to watch recording artists give lip-synch performances. "Dude! That is like, so lame!" As the youngsters would say in 1980s vernacular. With the advent of the Music Video Shows American Bandstand just seemed kind of weak! You may say "Skillz! if it was so lame then explain why a program like the syndicated 'Soul Train' continued to flourish with a simular blueprint of dancing and lip-synching?" I will tell you why! Because viewers wanted to dress in the festive gear that they saw on Soul Train, and they wanted to emulate the dance moves that they saw on the show that was dubbed "The Hippest Trip in America". You watched Soul Train so that you can look and dress the part; and you went clubbing with hopes that you would not leave the disco by yourself! But even compared to its more Nubiancentric competitor American Bandstand paled by comparison. Most of what you saw on Bandstand in the 1980s consisted of dancers dressed like they were at a church picnic and moved like wind-up dolls on the AB dance floor. AB was clearly a shadow of its former self. During the decade of New Wave and Boat Shoes and Micheal Jackson kids just didn't aspire to appear on American Bandstand like they did during previous decades. AB simply experienced the ratings dooldrums at best. Finally ABC ended it's long association with the music show and American Bandstand crawled to basic cable to die.

"Family Ties" original plan was to center around two former hippy parents. It showed Meredith Baxter-Birney as television's first successful working wife and mother. Sure the 1970s started to showcase unmarried career women and single moms, but the sitcom world by the 1980s had yet to purge itself of wives serving as homemakers! The Keaton family showed a woman balancing a career and motherhood, only to be overshadowed by "The Cosby Show". In fact during the third season of "Family Ties" NBC sandwiched it on Thursday nights between two popular sitcoms: "The Cosby Show" and "Cheers"! After spending three seasons following Cosby the "Peacock Network" uprooted "Family Ties" and had it exiled to Sunday night, in order to make way for Lisa Bonet to star in a "Different World"; which was then a sorry "Cosby Show" spinoff! "Family Ties" served as great springboard for Michael J. Fox! As the series progressed the focus was taken off of the liberal parents and placed on MJF's character: the conservative Alex P. Keaton. It was clear to viewers that without Alex there wouldn't be much to the show! While Meredith Baxter had a proven track record, she was clearly overshadowed by Michael J. Fox. After Fox starred in "Back to the Future","Teenwolf" and other theatrical release blockbusters; he was clearly being groomed for superstardom! In fact he was being molded into the "All-American Boy"! Fox found himself correcting the media by saying he was an "All-Canadian Boy", because he was a native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada! None of the juvenile stars of "Family Ties" had the screen presence of Michael J. Fox. He was the only one that had a promising future after the series ended.There was good chemistry between him and the adult stars. There were many laughs when Alex's conservative views clashed with the left-leaning views of his parents. This is also combined with the awkwardness of adolescense and taking pride in the fact that he was smart. He exudes the real world sarcasm towards his younger sisters. Everyone else seemed to serve as interchangable leggo pieces! "Family Ties" without Michael J. Fox was like "Corn Flakes" without the milk!

This commentary is for the rare viewer who has been under a rock since "Gorgeous George" graced the squared circle! Let's quickly bring you up to speed! Regional wrestling promotions have taken a back seat to national promotions that are consistently televised. The two largest American promotions are now The World Wrestling Federation and the Time-Warner owned World Championship Wrestling, which arose when media mongul Ted Turner bought most of the old National Wrestling Alliance!

The McMahon run World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the early to mid 1990's was losing talent and viewers and money to the "Turner Wrestling" Both WCW and the WWF have gone cable, and the hottest shows on cable are "WWF Raw is War" and "WCW Monday Nitro". Other shows on cable don't even come close! The Turner Wrestling aired Monday Nitro in response to "Raw". Until 1998 "Raw" was a taped show, while Nitro aired live in the same time slot. The peace was disturbed when Rick Rude appeared on both programs. So now Raw is a live show. In addition to airing it live Raw regained the top cable rating by resorting to more rancid plotlines. Now on to Smack Down!

Vince McMahon and his World Wrestling Federation diversified their portfolio by not only having three cable shows:"Raw is War","Sunday Night Heat", "WWF Live Wire"; But also the syndicated show "Jakked". For the first time in more than four decades, pro wrestling has returned to prime-time network television. So in 1999 "WWF Smack Down" aired on recent upstart: United Paramount Network (UPN).

Once you're tuned in you will notice that the WWF fans think that olympic style wrestling is boring! So there are less headlocks and arm drags, and more:drop kicks, hooks, jabs, pedigrees and chair shots than ever before! In terms of plots there are no longer good guys and bad guys! The wrestler that portrays the dutiful, compassionate hero one minute can easily be evil, despicable and heinous the next! Also like "Raw" ; during the first hour of "Smack Down" you will see fourteen minutes of actual wrestling matches! The remaining 46 minutes consists of commercials and trash talk!

The old wrestling programs were more suitable for family viewing! Writers appeal to the lowest common denominator with: profanity, scantily clad women, and rancid plots! Something to think about; how often does Joanie Laurer; that leather clad powerhouse of a woman get hit in the jaw or with a chair, or with a guitar by her hulking male counterparts?

Continuous exposure to this type of action could possibly desenitize young male viewers against domestic violence!

It would be safe to say let the kids watch the Disney Channel during Smack Down! The competitors are still tremendous atheletes, but their "show" is no longer suitable for younger or more sensitive viewers!

In this stand-up routine Dice plays to a sold-out Madison Square Garden. Using a lot of profanity in a stand-up routine is the easiest way to get laughs; but it's also the laziest way! No one knows that better than Andrew Dice Clay! In fact he made a mint getting paid the lazy way! Since the audience knew most of his jokes; he had to come up with some new material. Clay is a talented actor; despite his foul-mouthed routine.

An export from the sports arena is teamed up with animated Warner Brothers characters! Michael Jordan: one of the all-time greats on the hardwood debuts on the big-screen. In reality the cartoon characters are not really there! He is basically in a room by himself responding to voices! Acting in this environment would be difficult enough for a veteran actor; but would be close to impossible for someone else.

Audiences were used to seeing "Air Jordan" teamed up with the animated Warner Brothers characters in "Nike" and "McDonalds" endorsements; so a feature film would not be so far fetched! Someone at Warner Brothers had to write a feature film in an effort to attract kids and MJ fans into the cineplexes! the WB is not quite as versed in kidddie fair as their Disney competitors, but they did a decent job at putting this one together. They also had to cater to kids short attention spans by devising a simple plot. However it earned a "PG" rating because of it's mild violence!

This movie would not be the best barometer for Jordan's acting ability because he spends two-thirds of the flick interacting with characters that he couldn't see! Fortunately he did better at this than he did playing baseball!

The bald-headed, one-eyed,pipe-smoking, deformed-armed, spinach loving sailor man sails back into action! This time he is in a Saturday morning version that is probably more favorable towards parents; who want to raise kinder gentler children! In "the All-New Popeye Hour" instead of eating his spinach and beating someone senseless; he saves the day by doing tricks after guzzling a can of the leafy vegetable! However if you're a die-hard fan of animation you would be very disappointed! Max Fleisher provided lively animation in the days of the black-and-white shorts of almost half a century before. As the years went by and Popeye was presented in color, you witnessed the quality of animation gradually erode; until this 1978 series of Popeye cartoons which demonstrated poor animation!

The producers made sure everybody made it back! For the first time in years Popeye is reunited with: Seahag,Alice the Goon, and the Jeep! No version of Popeye would be complete without the always hungry Wimpy, and the big bully Bluto! The E.C. Segar created sailor man continues his engagement to Olive Oyl, which is without doubt the longest engagement in the history of Hollywood! They were eventually married years later! Popeye fans keep your eyes peeled for some REALLY all new Popeyes!

During her slightly hilarious stand-up routine, Margaret Cho is more than successful at pointing out the absurdity of racial and ethnic stereotypes! She was successful enough to join the likes of: Tim Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, Rosanne, and Drew Carey in the world of situation comedies! In "All-American Girl" she plays Margaret Kim: the daughter of Korean Immigrants. Three generations of Kims stay in the same household. Her parents (the bread-winning Kims) often set her up with Korean boys. Not just any Korean boys, but: doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other upwardly mobile professionals! Margaret however, likes to interracially date: aspiring musicians, actors, artists, writers; in other words worthless bums! She is much happier with the club hopping crowd than the silver-spoon eggheads that her parents try to set her up with!

Margaret probably had the most underrated supporting cast in the Industry. But sitcoms that cast a stand-up comedian as the lead only survive if they are well written! Casting Margaret as a party going mall rat did not give her the wiggle room to develop her character into an Emmy nomination! The series could've easily lasted more than one season if it were even SLIGHTLY better written! However ABC was notorious for abruptly pulling the plug on ethnic sitcoms! Margaret has enough talent to appear elsewhere, so look for her in the near future!

Lisa Bonet appearing as a witch in "Angel Heart" threatened to tarnish the clean cut image of "The Cosby Show" so the team of Carsey-Werner(in association with Bill Cosby of course) sent Denise away to college in the spin-off "A Different World". Life wasn't peaches and cream in a different world. It was in danger of being a flop. It was very lucky that it came after the ratings grabbing "Cosby Show". Watching the pilot of this series was like watching old people eat! The original set-up was that the fictional Hillman College be an integrated college, much like the one Bill Cosby attended. The following season Evette Lee was brought in to produce the show, while Howard University Alum (and Phylicia Rashad's sister) was brought in to direct it! This is when Hillman became a "Historically Black Institution!"

Lisa Bonet's supporting cast was talented but they could not overcome the fact that a"A Different World" was lame in it's premier season! In fact the talent of: Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison and the remaining cast made Lisa Bonet expendable! So,after one season, she had to crawl back to "the Cosby Show" with her tail between her legs! The series continued for a long time without her! This series also served as a springboard for Jada Pinket.

Travel with me back to the 1980s: a decade of consumerism! Americans stockpiled material items and debt! Mattel wanted to tap into this consumerism courtesy of "He-Man". The commercial for the toy starts out with a close-up shot of the doll..Excuse me, action figure! It is a detailed figure complete with: blond bangs, broad shoulders, jiggling pecs, beasty biceps, and washboard abdominals. An adult male asks "Whose the big guy with all the muscles?" The boy chimes in: "He's He-Man: the most powerful man in the Universe!" Of course traditional ad campaigning wasn't enough; so Mattel conspired with Filmation to create a cartoon to help sell "The Masters of the Universe Collection"!

When the animated show materializes, He-Man is in civilian form as Prince Adam. Adam is as brawny as the action figure but has an effeminate voice. But when it comes time to battle: Skeletor, Beastman, and other forces of evil he points his sabre skyward, yells "From the Power of Greyskull: I have the poweeeerr!", a bolt of lightning darts out of the sky, strikes the sword, and Prince Adam is transformed into the baritone voiced He-Man! Mattels competitors didn't want the Masters of the Universe to have all the power; so they followed suit and created cartoons in an effort to sell a planned or existing line of toys! Their efforts included but weren't limited to: G.I. Joe, Transformers, GoBots, and Thundercats! The toy wars were raging because you NEVER saw a GoBots commercial during a "Transformers" program! This is proof that the cartoons I've mentioned were nothing more than advertising masquerading as entertainment!

Consumer Advocates argued that children would be defenseless because they would not know the difference between a program and a commercial! However the child is not the consumer, the parent is!The parent "Has the Power" to inform the child of the difference. The parent "Has the Power" to limit the child's viewing. They also "Have the Power" to tell the child "no" once in a while!

If Filmation was smart, they would try to bring this cartoon back. If they do, it will take the pressure off the parents to stay away from the "Toys Sure 'R' Expensive, Considering How Fast They Break" store at the closing credits of every episode!

Yes I said it! Even though Tim Allen plays the accident prone host of a local cable show he is still a clear authority figure to his three sons. Most fathers in today's sitcoms greater resemble stick figures than authority figures! Networks wouldn't dare air a family sitcom; and when one does air, it is almost exclusively relegated to UPN or the WB!

Most situation comedies of today consists of: unmarried, commitment-phobic white color characters! Even though Tim is an authority figure he often seeks help from his wife Jill. If all else fails he goes to the next door neighbor Wilson; for guidance through lifes problems! Home Improvement served as a great springboard for Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who plays the wise-cracking middle son Randy. Though Thomas is currently doing the rounds of family dramas for Disney; don't be surprised if he is starring in a slasher flick in the near future!

In the early 1980s the Western and the Variety show were extinct! The Situation Comedy was on life support! But the duo of Carsey-Werner helped this failing genre make a speedy recovery! Most of the popular sitcoms in the early 80s began their runs in the 1970s. Most sitcoms premiering in the early part of the decade were crashing and burning! Carsey-Werner was able to give icon Bill Cosby a good enough supporting cast; to help the former standup comedian become the 1980s Number One TV Dad.

Though the show featured an affluent Black Family in an integrated section of Brooklyn; the sitcom stayed away from controversial race issues. Cosby did not allow the characters to interracially date. Also Lisa Bonet appearing in the movie "Angel Heart" threatened to tarnish the clean cut image of "The Cosby Show." The reason being is because Lisa played in a movie that her character: Denise Huxtable, was too young to see! Cosby gave Lisa her own series called "A Different World". Lisa however could only survive a year in a "Different World" because her talented supporting cast made her expendable!

The rest of America was experiencing: layoffs, and corporate downsizing. The show about the affluent Huxtables survived the eighties in a much weakened state! Carsey-Werner had to create "Roseanne" to offset this discrepancy! Even though Heatcliff Huxtable by no means was perfect, watch "The Cosby Show" so that you can see a sitcom were a father actually attempts to do some parenting!

Saturday Night Live is without doubt the longest running sketch comedy show in the history of television. Lately it has become unamusing! The cast is squeamish, as if they are letting the audience know that live television is a thorn in their side! Saturday Night Live served as a great springboard for: Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey, Mike Meyers, Chris Rock, Dennis Miller,the late Phil Hartman, the late Chris Farley. This list would not be complete without top box office draw Eddie Murphy!

The only reason I am not completely ripping the Not Ready For Prime Time Players a new one, is because live performances are so rare on network television! This is the only outlet where television performers can prove that they are remotely as talented as stage performers! The Lorne Micheals created SNL's only competition is the tape-delayed "Mad-TV" on FOX. Plugs for Mad-TV keep harping on the notion that Saturday Night Live isn't funny!

Another plus for SNL is all the musical guests that have performed on the show. I am not even going to try to mention all of the recording legends that have appeared! The musical guests do not "lip sync" like they do when they perform on: American Bandstand, Solid Gold, or Soul Train. You can hear how your favorite recording artists sound live before you decide to spend your hard earned money to see them in concert!

Lorne Micheals' creation has more moronic sketches than ever before! The jokes are worse than ever before! The delivery is worse than ever before! A current episode of SNL is about as amusing as a train wreck! BUT the show is done live! Lorne Micheals' "Saturday Night Live" will always have an audience regardless of how mind-numbingly unfunny it becomes!

This commentary is for the rare viewer that has been under a rock since Bob Backland was World Wrestling Federation Champion.Remember those weak syndicated shows where champion and contenting wrestlers showcased their finishing moves and submission holds on scrubs? Those are history! Pro Wrestling has gone cable, and contenders and champions compete against each other every match! They have relaxed on the rules a little too! Olympic style wrestling is boring to the current crop of WWF fans. So it is now legal to jump from the top turnbuckle. Throwing your opponent over the top rope is also permitted!

There are no clear cut antigonists and protagonists in this story line! The compassionate hero one week, can be despicable the following week. They have also relaxed their standards of conduct so that foul language and scantily clad women are the norm. The only way professional wrestling could get worse, is if guns and knives were involved! Back before the days of the "Wrestlemania" pay-per-views, it was safe for your children to watch a WWF telecast. NOT ANYMORE!

In this animated sitcom, the directors didn't have to be politically correct, which is the beauty of it! Almost every word of dialogue was a barrel of laughs! The writing had to be excellent every week to pull it off in this sound bite world. Too bad it was cancelled by two networks!

This is an attempt by the "Eye Network" (CBS to you) to throw the Religious Right a bone; then go back to business as usual putting out pieces of trash like "Big Brother"! "Jesus" was the weakest Messiah portrayal I've seen! It is more true for this movie than ever before; that the writing is only as effective as the actor that says the lines! Pardoning a woman about to be stoned for committing "free love" requires emotion. Trashing the Temple of Jerusalem requires a different emotion. None of those emotions was demonstrated by actor Jeremy Sisto! He merely just says the lines! The passion requires to play Jesus through the various stages of his life was not demonstrated by Jeremy Sisto.

If you want to see the "Lion of Judah"portrayed on video, there are better choices!

This movie was thought provoking in a sense because it shows how men separate the women that they love from the women they see in girlie magazines! In this flick the women needed to affirm their physical beauty by going to a girlie magazine photographer! Where are the husbands and the fathers? It also makes this decision to pose seem self-centered (not that the characters were self-centered; they were well acted). The women that make an emotionally charged decision to pose rarely think about the loved ones that they will hurt once the pictures are made public! It also serves to turn an otherwise complex, multi-faceted character into an object!This movie also should warn all the husbands and fathers out there to not neglect their wives and daughters; so that they won't resort to drastic measures to feel attractive!

This premier "Hood" movie by John Singleton has spawned a legion of dreadful imitations! "Boyz" opened the door for other aspiring filmmakers to get their urban narratives told on the big screen. However all those other imitations, emulations, and duplications did not get the anti-violent message that Singleton tried to communicate!

Every "Hood" movie put out had masterful direction in expressing the problems in Urban America. The "Homeys" don't need to see a Hood movie to know that there is a problem! They can see the problem! They can hear the problem! They LIVE the problem! This is the first movie I've seen that really conveys the absurdity of petty arguments escalating into gun fights! "Boyz" also says that "We know there is a problem, and here's some suggestions of how to remedy the problem!" No such message is communicated in the knockoffs! The Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, Dead Presidents) helped the Hood movie make the transition from "Anti-Establishment" to becoming "The Establishment"! The "Stop the Violence" message was transformed into: "Live Fast, Die Young, never outlive your glory." Who cares if your behavior is turning the neighborhood into the OK Corral!

Boyz in the Hood is the only movie to introduce you to the genre!

The actors on "Saturday Night Live" are dubbed "The Not-Ready-For-Time-Players. The ones that were ready for prime time starred in the situation comedy "Roc"! The second season of the show was done live! Roc was part of FOX's "Black Pack"; a format it has since abandoned! The only way that Rupert Murdock's FOX Network contributed positively to the quality of network television was showing "Roc Live."

This was good. But apparently the other three networks weren't up to the challenge! Live entertainment on network TV is scarce! During the run of "Roc Live" all of the other popular sitcoms were showing outtakes during the closing credits! The other networks simply weren't ready. This live sitcom has yet to be answered!

Camryn Manheim winning an Emmy for the "The Practice" really raises a good point about how actresses that are larger than a size four rarely get the good acting jobs! Camryn will never play a romantic lead (her Emmy was won in a support role) because of her size! Hollywood simply bypasses a lot of talent because of its' pronounced tendency to hire actresses that are little more than skin and teeth!

When it comes to Lisa Nicole Carson it is just as important WHAT she plays, as HOW she plays it! In the "Homeywoods" of America, a woman that is: big bottomed, small waisted, chested is the ideal woman!This is regardless of whether she is a buggy-whipped armed ballerina, or a plus-size shot putter. This standard of beauty was NEVER expressed in mass media until Jackee Harry played the sophisticated Sandra Clark in the sitcom "227". A perfect throwback to this is Lisa Nicole Carson.

Lisa gave a heartfelt performance in Jason's lyric as Marti. She made you feel for Marti in her hopes to find a romantic like Lyric did. However she will never play a romantic lead because those roles are reserved almost exclusively for women who are little more than hair and bones! Women that had physiques like Lisa Carson were called "healthy" until the 1960s; then skeletal British model Twiggy changed everything! All Lisa has to do is act, so that she can open the door for REAL WOMEN to advance in the discipline of acting!

To make a long story short, this shows how "Morally Challenged" America has become; especially subtitling it "All-American Girl". They turned a case of pedophilia and statutory rape into "Romeo and Juliet." The USA network was fastest to jump on this media hyped story and redramatized it!

They distorted a couple of things to make it palatable, first they hired a 19 year-old actor to play Mary Kay's 12-year old lover. Secondly it tells the women of America that it is okay to commit pedophilia if your husband is an insensitive jerk! But the movie, and the media failed to ask the tough questions! Like; what if it were a man, that had a baby with one of his sixth grade students? Will he be portrayed as a victim, or will he be instantly prosecuted and put under the jail?

If the teacher were male then the viewers would see this story for what it is; sensationalizing a story about a teacher that put their emotional needs and desires ahead of the well being of a child!

This is the second Hughes Brothers project. After the ill-fated sitcom "South Central" Larenz Tate returns to the silver screen in the lead role. This time they get nostalgic, and go back in time to tell a tale of urban blight!

Like the Hughes Brothers previous project "Menace II Society" ;its purpose was more about action more than uplifting Urban America! The Hughes Brothers second project was as "reality challenged" as its premier effort. It glamorizes a culture of violence, guns and drugs; and calling it "real"! Like Menace the message is "Live for the moment, forget the future!!!

Just imagine "Boyz N the Hood" with the positive influences removed, and you'll get the Hughes Brothers film "Menace II Society". If You want to see: action, violence, guns and criminal activity; "Menace" will wet your whistle! But if you want to see an accurate, positive, enlightening portrayal of Black America; buy all means don't see Menace II Society!

The Hughes Brothers were obviously interested in action more than anything else.They created a lead character that was worse than the "Ice Cube" character in "Boyz N the Hood". The lead character thought that he can drug deal his way out of the gutter! "Menace II Society" was the equivalent to the Devil coming out with a movie to make people fell sorry for him getting cast out of Heaven! What is disheartening about this urban tale; is that Caine never aspires to be anything other than a "Menace II Society"!

It's predecessor "Boyz N the Hood" sent many enlightening messages concerning Urban America. The only message that this Hughes Brothers project tells young people is "Live for the moment! Forget About the Future!"

This project was done away from Hollywood. In "Just Another Girl..." it focuses on an aspiring college bound student. Who has to cope with her plans being detoured.

The characters were a little materialistic. Question: is someone that drives a Benz, Bimmer or an SUV more man than someone who rides the subway? Go figure! Though this story had an urban theme; it did not have a plot that revolved around violence, guns and drugs. Because Leslie Harris didn't go the Hollywood route; the big screen depiction of her story was told how SHE wanted it to be told. She did not compromise her craft; which justifies why the film made a killing in the after market!