827. Boyz 'N the Hood (1991)

Running Time: 112 minutes
Directed By: John Singleton
Written By: John Singleton
Main Cast: Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Larry Fishburne, Nia Long
Click here to view the trailer

ON MY JOURNEY I PASSED THROUGH THE HOOD

For the unaware, I work in a grocery store and this is my busy time of year! Therefore, bear with me as I struggle through these next few days and try to simultaneously keep up the flow of movies being watched and reviews being written. I'm going to try REALLY hard to have this season wrapped by the end of the year, although it's looking more and more like a first week of January wrap-up. Anyway - "Boyz N the Hood"...

Think of "Boyz N the Hood" as a Spike Lee Joint without all the preaching & anger and more of a point A to point B plot (not that Lee's movies are plot-less, it's just that they aren't as basic as this). The film tells focuses on Tre Styles, whom we catch up with at the age of ten, when he's sent to live with his father, after his mother is tired of seeing him get suspended from school and winding up in physical confrontations. At his father's, Tre is set straight by his level headed, stern, yet loving old man, Furious (Fishburne). In the "hood", Tre meets and befriends brothers Ricky and Doughboy. Once the relationship between the boys is established and once Doughboy is arrested at a young age for theft, we jump ahead seven years. Now Tre (Gooding, Jr.) is a good grade achieving high schooler, thinking about college; Ricky (Chestnut) is a scouted high school football talent and Doughboy (Ice Cube) is just out of prison, spending his days loafing on his mother's front porch and his nights instigating gang wars with rivals. It's all just another day with the boys in this hood.

So yeah, I mean once you get the basic premise, you can probably, pretty much map out the rest of the film. It's not an unpredictable movie, to say the least, but I will say it's effective and it makes good use of it's two hours. However, much like when I watched "Do the Right Thing", I just got this overwhelming feeling like I shouldn't be watching this movie; like it wasn't made for me and therefore, I needed to find my own, non existent film about the hardships of the white race. I will give credit to Singleton, however, for straying away from the preaching and just, for the most part, telling us a story and giving us a few facts to chew on in the process, never shaking a finger at his audience. There's really on one scene where things get a little preachy, but it's minor and able to be overlooked. Gotta' give some credit to the cast here too. I particularly liked Laurence Fishburne (credited as Larry), whom I've always liked but never really knew why - now, at least, when I say I like him, I have SOMETHING to cite as to why. Ice Cube was great too, perhaps because he probably was doing less acting and more recollecting. I'll give a hearty *meh* to Gooding, Jr. and pretty much everybody else and go so far as to say I wish Angela Bassett had had a more prominent role.

RATING: 7/10  My computer keeps freezing for some unknown reason and I've pretty much hit all the points I wanted to make, so we'll call that a review. It seems that lately I'm getting more "Ten Worth Mentioning" nominees, as opposed to TOP 20 noms.

MOVIES WATCHED: 769
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 232

November 25, 2013  5:59pm