Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
1/4
"New Jack City" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/28/2012
A team of maverick cops investigate when a gangster takes over an entire tenement block in the New York ghetto. Although this film enjoys a good reputation as a hard-hitting, socially conscious representation of life in "the hood", it is actually EXACTLY the kind of testosterone-soaked, cliched crap that Mario Van Peebles has made his bread and butter ever since. Tacking on montages of drug use and a couple of lines about the "drug problem" at the end does NOT a social documentary make. It's really just the same old straight to DVD standard Van Damme/Seagal level tripe with a blaxploitation spin, and features some of the kinds of fashions that have been forgotten with good reason. Not to mention a soundtrack that ignores the era in which some of the best hip hop was made, instead …
Rating of
3.5/4
A really good anti-drug movie
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/01/2008
Two cops (Ice-T and Judd Nelson) are on the hunt for a ruthless drug lord (Wesley Snipes), who is slowly taking over the New York City when he introduces crack cocaine to the city's drug addicted population. They go undercover on their own when the budget for their Task Force is cut for a short period.
This movie has some of the best acting I've seen in a long time. Nelson, Ice-T and especially Snipes are great in their roles. Mario Van Peebles, who also directed "New Jack City", wasn't in the film that much, but his performance is just as good.
Speaking of Peebles -- his direction was just as good as the performances of his cast. He used light and shadow to the movie's advantage quite well. He also used NYC just as well as he used the gritiest locations available to him to help …
