Boyz 'N The Hood
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Movie Reviews of Boyz 'N The Hood
Movie Review: strong character development and remarkable acting in a meaningful film
Summary: 5 Stars
Boyz 'N the Hood is a graphic motion picture that deals frankly with the social problems and the unfair, very hard knocks in life people face in the African-American neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles. There are no punches pulled in this film and I do not recommend it for young children. The acting is some of the best I've ever seen and I was totally drawn into the action and plot of this picture; I could feel what the characters were experiencing and that tells me that this picture was done with great care and attention to detail. The plot moves along at a good pace and the cinematography is excellent.
The action starts when we meet some young kids. There's ten year-old Tre Styles who lives with his mother Reva Styles (Angela Bassett); and two of his childhood friends are half-brothers Ricky Baker (Morris Chestnut) and "Doughboy" (Ice Cube). Tre has an anger problem in school; and his mother decides he should live with his father and her ex-husband Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne). Meanwhile, Tre's mother is determined to get better educated and she works hard to successfully leave South Central. Furious Styles, despite his name, is quite a fatherly figure who immediately takes a keen interest in raising his young boy Tre. Furious wants Tre to become a responsible man who can make it out of South Central someday, too. Meanwhile, even at a young age Doughboy is already getting arrested for stealing although Ricky, like Tre, dreams of getting out of South Central by playing professional football.
The movie fast forwards seven years; and we find that Doughboy has essentially done nothing with his life--except doing time in prison and hanging out with his buddies on his mother's front porch. Ricky is eagerly anticipating going to USC on a basketball scholarship and Tre works at a mall clothing store while preparing to take the SAT with Ricky and attend college himself.
Unfortunately, however, the rough life in South Central deals them some mighty harsh blows; and it becomes apparent that it won't be as easy to get out as Tre and Ricky first hoped. Ricky has to get at least a 700 on his SAT test and Tre has to navigate the waters of starting his first real romance with his high school girlfriend Brandi (Nia Long), the only girl he truly wants to marry. Over all this comes the incredibly strong tidal wave of South Central's drug problems and the gun violence that at times seems to rule the streets without warning. Even a black cop covering the beat is racist against blacks in the neighborhood! Ultimately, Tre, Ricky and Doughboy face some hard choices and what they do to solve their problems provides us with some of the most riveting footage I've ever seen on film.
The two DVD release of this movie has a plethora of extras. The deleted scenes are good but the documentary and the commentary with John Singleton were the two best extras in my opinion. You can also choose between widescreen and fullscreen.
It's abundantly clear that Boyz `N the Hood will remain one of the best social commentaries for quite some while to come. This film was inducted into The National Film Registry and it deserved it without a doubt. I strongly encourage people who study social issues and sociology to watch this film. When it comes down to it, though, people of all backgrounds should see this film and know just how hard and unfair life can be for some people.
Movie Review: RUN Ricky...Damn It.
Summary: 5 Stars
Viewed: 10/03, 11/04, 10/05, 10/10
Rate: 10
10/05: Boyz n the Hood is a serious, compelling film which depicts the life of black youth in a ghetto plagued by drugs and gangs. It is also a definite masterpiece. As The Bicycle Thief carried the Italian Neo-realism movement, Boyz n the Hood captured the essence of it with its untested cast. Monster performances are given by everybody. The message Boyz n the Hood brings out is sharp and direct to the point and is fully impacting. Of course, how biased the Academy Awards committee is, Boyz n the Hood should have racked up a numerous of nominations. Starting with the cast, Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, and Tyra Ferrell were overlooked. Then, add the Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Costume, Best Music, Best Director, and Best Original Story. That makes it `10' for Boyz n the Hood. To my surprise and still to this day, Ice Cube received no critical acclaim for his brilliant performance, and in my mind, he won the award for that year. How brilliant was Ice Cube? From his first line to the ending, Ice Cube displayed this natural seriousness and delivered his lines to perfection. That emotional scene where the climax reaches is completely mind-blowing every time I see it. It's something I look forward to and appreciate the realism of that shot. I love how the story plays out and how the director makes the use of each and every character without leaving any out. The character development is just so right and terse yet meaningful. It features a gritty urban story of youth trapped in a barren wasteland, trying to make it out for the betterment of their lives while most get caught in the process of the life. I love how John Singleton points out the small details during the movie. All in all, Boyz n the Hood ranks one of the great pictures ever made and one of the finest, if not ever, in black cinema.
10/10: As real as it gets, Boyz n the Hood is one of the most powerful films I've seen. It couldn't be any more dramatic than the scene where Tre yells out to Ricky in some alley. Then, there is a shattering moment where Doughboy is misunderstood but may be the blame for the loss of his brother's life. 1991 was the year that ice Cube should have won the supporting actor award by a landslide, and sadly, he wasn't even recognized a bit for his work. His was one of the best performances I've seen in any film. I've not seen a Black film this good with an exception of Hoop Dreams. The cast elevated Boyz n the Hood into a new territory with common themes implemented, but the direction of John Singleton is the key changing element. He brought in the message and showed it in a subtle way. He wanted the impact felt when Ricky gets brutally shot down. He wanted it to be loud and clear that Black communities did face this reality daily and even to this day. All in all, Boyz n the Hood is a film that deserves to be seen over and over throughout the years; it is that good. By the way, as not a lot of people notice, there is a one great line in the film uttered by Ricky where he says, "Baby got more cakes than Duncan Hines." That one sort of got stuck in my mind.
Movie Review: Excellent Movie With a Strong Message
Summary: 5 Stars
Boyz n the Hood was one of the most important movies of the 1990's. It is both an excellent movie about life in the mean streets of the inner city as well as a reinforcer of the moral values needed to turn around the situation in Urban America where youth gangs run rampant. During the course of the story, it offers much needed commentary on the
situation that young people find themselves in and how they can get out of it.
At the start of the movie there is a subtitle that says "One out of every 21 black males will be murdered in his lifetime, most will be killed at the hands of another black male." If anything, that fact is even worse today. Most flicks today that are about the inner city crime scene have taken many of their concepts from this film, but many of these
films today are all shoot `em up movies that have no morality, strong plot or serious social message.
The setting of this flick is South Central L.A.: Where murder rates are five times the nationwide average, or in absolute figures, double the entire U.S.'s death rate for breast cancer. Over the past two decades the Los Angeles Police Department has accumulated a backlog of 4,400 unsolved homicides - roughly 3/4ths of the city's total.
This gripping tale evolves around a single black father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne), raising his one and only son, Tré Styles (Cuba Gooding Jr.), and installing in him the values to help him become a man. This is an important point that director John Singleton took time to illustrate since the majority of men in the black community are often raised by their single mothers. The values that Furious Styles instills in Tre are generally not portrayed in most movies today.
Essentially, Boyz n the Hood is a movie about peace. Its message is that violence isn't the answer, and this movie shows the effects of violence being what residents of the inner city all too frequently resorts to when there are other alternatives available.
The movie starts when Tre's mother sends him
to live with his father Jason, a/k/a "Furious", who
is much better equipped to raise a son in a neighborhood like this. The movie quickly moves forward seven years when seventeen year old Tre and his best friend Ricky about to graduate from high school, while
another friend Doughboy has already graduated - from
shoplifting to guns and small-time drug deals. And while Furious guides Tre towards moral choices, responsibility and self-respect, Doughboy and Ricky are raised by a mother who lacks the capacity to instill proper values and morals in her offspring.
The basic plot to Boyz n the Hood is can Tre avoid the crime and drug scene and live a normal, decent life? This is all the more challenging given all the crime and violence around him. Boyz n the Hoodis an excellent film that is a drama based on real human beings. It shows the
dire straits that folks in the South Central are in without being conscending or exploitative. Boyz n the Hood is a flick that is well written, acted and directed. The cinematography is stunning.
Movie Review: A great movie... very moving
Summary: 5 Stars
Of all the "hood movies" This is hands down the best. Many movies try to reflect the daily dramas that are played out in the urban war zones and ghettos of the "Land of the Free". "South Central", "Menace to Society", and several others come to mind. But none of these others can compare to "Boyz N The Hood".First off, you have a great, and talented cast. Fishbourn is terrific in his portrayel of a hard edged father who tries to raise his son right and teaches him to be a man in a harsh world. Cuba Gooding JR is incredible in his performance (despite a few moments of obsurdity) as Tre, the main character, who is the only kid in the hood to have a positive male role model. Ice cube does very good job as "Dough Boy" the bad *** of Tre's friends.
The story is also very good and is told well. We begin with Tre as a violent and disturbed young child living with his mother, who is then kicked out of his school for beating up other kids. His mother sends him to live with his father. We then see Tre and his friends grow up and dealing with the problems of young adult minorities in an urban environment.
There are a lot of emotional parts to this movie and it aproaches the subject manner in a pretty mature fashion meant to impress the desparity of the Ghetto as well as what it's like to try and grow up and survive there.
Just like similar movies there is a significant amount of graphic violence, but I look at it as a more realistic depiction of the stories setting and characters. The difference with Boyz N The Hood is that it uses violence in a more responsible way, and there is less of it compared to say "menace 2 society". The violence in the movie isn't just thrown in for fun or to show you some violence, but to impact you.
Also there is a definate message of consequences of actions and the movie stresses the importence of making good choices, and doing the best you can even if the hand you are dealt isn't the best. In The end Tre prevails and is a good man, despite all the odds stacked against him.
This movie really brought tears to my eyes and it was a fabulous, and disturbing look at the problems that America seems to pretend don't exist. Watch this movie and it may even change the way you look at the world.
Movie Review: Singleton's best
Summary: 5 Stars
Boyz In The Hood is embraced by most people for all the wrong reasons. Most people embrace for the portrayal of hood life but only a few people understand why Boyz N The Hood is one of the most important contributions to Black cinema. Boyz N The Hood had a social conscious that is missing from a lot of hood flicks that come out nowadays.
The story if you didnt know is about Tre'(Cuba Gooding Jr) being sent to live with his father after he gets in trouble in school. The rest of the film details his experience in South Central Los Angeles.
Laurence Fishburne is at his best here. I always thought that he was a great actor and his role here proves it. Furious Styles is a loving father but stern and wise enough to be observant about his surroundings. Cuba Gooding Jr is great as Tre': a somewhat confused but intelligent kid. Ice Cube's best performance next to Fudge in Higher Learning will always be "Doughboy". Angela Bassett shines as Tre's caring mother.
I like all the gems in this movie like Furious telling Tre' why Black men shouldnt join the army or Furious explaining to the neighborhood in Compton what Gentrification is(hell, most people dont even know what that is now). The stereotypes in this movie are all too real: The mother that loves one son over the other, the biased black cop, the confused black men and women and crack cocaine. All these things still exist that is why Boyz In The Hood is still relevant after all these years! I recommend this movie to the crowd that is smart enough to embrace it for the gems that are held within. Two thumbs up all the way.