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post #1 of 10
12/7/06 at 2:39pm
Thread Starter 
It seems like I often see people saying that they really dislike this movie, but I've never seen anyone go into that much depth about why before. I could see how some people might find it simplistic, but I still think it's an entertaining movie with some pretty solid performances.
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post #2 of 10
12/7/06 at 2:52pm
I kind of like it, but it's practically on a kitsch level. Singleton tried to take on too many social issues at once and didn't leave himself time to provide any of them with nuance. All of the characters are cut-outs, the performances are over-the-top, and the messages are absurdly heavy-handed. It's easy to illustrate a point about racism when you've filled your movie with white supremacists.
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post #3 of 10
12/7/06 at 2:55pm
Let's see... We have a slo-mo of Busta Rhymes going ghetto. We have some 'experimenting" with Kristy Swanson and the immortal Jennifer Connelly. We then have Larry Fishburne with a terribly terrible "Jamaican" accent.

What's NOT to love?
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post #4 of 10
12/7/06 at 3:20pm
Amen!
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post #5 of 10
12/7/06 at 3:29pm
Heavy-handed is an understatement. It's like Crash on campus.

I was in college when this came out. During a holiday break, while visiting my hometown, I went to see it with a friend of mine that wasn't going to school. I remember after the movie him asking me, sarcastically, whether my campus was as fun as the one depicted. All I could do was roll my eyes.

I give Singleton points for aiming at an "important" theme, but he could have done so much more than this string of recycled cliches and caricatures.

The film has all the cinematic mastery of an average episode of Beverly Hills 90210. (Absence of Ian Ziering notwithstanding.)

This movie, along with Poetic Justice, really killed the goodwill he had earned with Boyz N the Hood.
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post #6 of 10
12/7/06 at 3:47pm
But it has a great remix version of Rage Against The Machine´s "Darkness of Greed" on the soundrack as well.
Ah, the nineties. Time for them to be the new eighties.
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post #7 of 10
12/7/06 at 9:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB
I kind of like it, but it's practically on a kitsch level. Singleton tried to take on too many social issues at once and didn't leave himself time to provide any of them with nuance. All of the characters are cut-outs, the performances are over-the-top, and the messages are absurdly heavy-handed. It's easy to illustrate a point about racism when you've filled your movie with white supremacists.
Can't argue with this.

One of my larger problems is that Singleton manages to give some of the black over-sensitivity a free pass; unless we're supposed to uncritically identify with the lesbians and brothers. Watching it, I thought it was pretty clear that "white racists are bad" was a big message; "blacks have their own issues with prejudice at times" was apparent to me but I'm not sure if that's a view Singleton intended to put out there, it may have just seeped out.
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post #8 of 10
12/17/06 at 11:23pm
It has the power to turn people Republican with its PC smugness.
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post #9 of 10
12/18/06 at 4:12pm
you know the part in dont be a menace when keenan ivory wayans yells MESSAGE through the window? yeah this movie feels like that
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post #10 of 10
12/18/06 at 4:33pm
It's been a while since I've seen this, though as soon as I saw the discussion and before I read far enough down, I knew someone would compare it to Crash.

Even though he becomes the token racist guy in the film, I always found Michael Rapaport's performance in this film to be quite good. He really nails the nebbishly nerdy guy that succumbs to a stronger influence in order to fit in.
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