MENACE II SOCIETY (WIDESCREEN/FULL SCREEN)

Details

• Release Year: 1993
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Suspense/Thriller
• Plot: This inner-city crime melodrama, set in Watts, is a speedy, violent, adolescent-cynical take on the no-hope lives of young black men. The filmmakers-twenty-one-year-old twins Allen and Albert Hughes-aren't interested in the tragic irony of the classic gangster film; they aim, instead, for the throwaway, life-is-cheap tone of grimy fifties B-pictures. They move from horror to horror in a businesslike, deadpan way that reflects, with frightening conviction, the thoroughness of their characters' alienation. The Hugheses are so scrupulous, so comprehensive, in their refusal to do the usual things that they leave themselves short on expressive options. As the picture goes along, you actually start to wish it were a little squarer, that the filmmakers would give you something more to hold on to than the grinding pulp momentum that substitutes here for true dramatic structure. The Hugheses achieve some brilliant and memorable sequences, and the lack of sentimentality is a step in the right direction; but the movie winds up running in place. With Tyrin Turner, Larenz Tate, Jada Pinkett, Vonte Sweet, Glenn Plummer, Bill Duke, Charles S. Dutton, and Samuel L. Jackson. Screenplay by Tyger Williams; cinematography by Lisa Rinzler. -Terrence Rafferty
• Cast: Tyrin Turner, Larenz Tate, June Kyoto Lu, Toshi Toda, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Johnson, Brandon Hammond, Glenn Plummer, Reginald Ballard, Khandi Alexander, Eugene Lee, James Pickens Jr., Nancy Cheryll Davis, Jullian Roy Doster, Jada Pinkett Smith, Marilyn Coleman, Arnold Johnson, Saafir, Pooh Man, MC Eight, Vonte Sweet, Ryan Williams, Cynthia Calhoun, Garen Holman, Joy Matthews, Clifton Powell, Todd Anthony Shaw, Christopher M. Brown, Stacy Arnell, Dwayne L. Barnes, Dave Kirsch, Alvin Mears, Bill Duke, Robert Gonzales, Martin Davis, Erin Leshawn Wiley, Charles S. Dutton, Charles J. Grube, Mike Kelly, Rolando Molina, Clifton Collins Jr., Tony Valentino, Daniel Villarreal, Yolanda Whittaker, Samuel Monroe Jr., Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, Tyger Williams, Lisa Rinzler, Christopher Koefoed, Quincy Jones III
• Director: Albert Hughes
• Runtime: 1:44
• Company: New Line Cinema
• Media Format: Movie