JUICE is an early ’90s “hood movie” about four young friends in New York who fall into some stupid shit. Tired of getting picked on by the Puerto Rican kids and the cops and not having money, they decide to get a gun (just one between them) and rob a little mini-mart where the guy is an asshole and yells at them sometimes. It’s not exactly The Thomas Crown Affair they’re trying to pull off, but they’re amateurs so they fuck up this small time crime and have to deal with the aftermath. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Ernest Dickerson’
Juice
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Demon Knight
Monday, October 11th, 2010
Well boils and ghouls, I’m glad I took a stab at reviewing THE PHANTOM recently and got you squealing about Billy Zane, because you were dead right to recommend this movie in the, uh, corpse-ments. (the comments is what I mean. I’m not sure that one works.) This movie is an absolute scream! Sometimes my throat gets really dry and I can’t stop coffin. something about rigor mortis, etc.
TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS: DEMON KNIGHT is another enjoyable studio B-movie of the ’90s that held up better than I thought it would. Directed by Ernest Dickerson (cinematographer of DO THE RIGHT THING, director of BONES, and that about sums him up) it’s a pulpy supernatural hotel-siege tale with a game Billy Zane as the (SPOILER) demon that the knight fights with. (more…)
Bulletproof
Saturday, January 1st, 2005You know how I am, I get out to the real world, I make it my duty to try to catch up on what’s going on in the culture and what not. And I have heard alot about this Adam Sandler, #1 box office star, funny guy, sings songs. Sounds kind of like my man Bruce Willis. Well I don’t wanna be left in the dust so I decided to check the kid out.
I found several to choose from – you got golf, you got babysitting, you got kindergarten, etc. The choice was obvious, Bulletproof.
In this movie he plays Archie Moses, a car thief who also is the right hand man in a huge drug empire. He decides to introduce his partner Rock Keats to the big boss man, and even before that he keeps mentioning how he’s his best friend, he’s the only person he trusts etc. and holy jesus, I nearly wet my pants in surprise when the dude turned out to be an undercover cop. (sarcasm)
Well when the bust goes down Archie shoots Rock in the head by accident but Rock survives and then it turns out to be this squabbling buddy movie where Rock has to have Archie in protective custody. And they hate each other because one of them betrayed the other and the other shot the other. You know. And then the drug lords are trying to kill them and what not. But you get it, they’re always bickering and insulting the other and what not. And fighting and everything, that’s where the comedy is, when they argue.
Believe it or not I think this is going for a John Woo type feel. I mean think about it… Bulletproof, Hard Boiled. Similar titles. Then you got the whole undercover cop bonds with criminal and feels guilty deal. And you even got the guy who survived a bullet in the head which I understand is a theme in one of Woo’s films, I believe it’s Bullet in the Head that has that. But Bulletproof is done in a real crappy sub-Beverly Hills Cop sequel kind of way and it’s all pretty much garbage. Nothing about it is original or very believable, especially this Damon Wayans who plays Rock. The guy just doesn’t have it in him to seem tough and he really fumbles the ebonics as well. His anger at Archie never feels genuine and while I’m at it WHAT THE FUCK kind of name is “archie moses”? And they say it over and over. Thanks alot mister scriptwriter. You’re fired. (more…)
Never Die Alone
Friday, March 26th, 2004Well for a while now I have been saying that this young man DMX is gonna do some good movies. He started out in a flawed but very artful crime picture called BELLY, before buddying up with Jet Li and my man Seagal and then riding around on those go-carts and doing wheelies and shit. (I guess I better rent that one.) He is still not a very convincing actor but he just has such a presence and charisma that I have faith in the dude for some reason. Too bad it’s not panning out so far.
See, I really thought this was gonna be his breakthrough. It’s the first movie where he does not have a co-star of equal or greater “star power.” He is the main attraction. And at the same time it is not some Hollywood action vehicle that the Rock or somebody turned down, it is an independent crime movie based on a novel by the legendary black crime writer Donald Goines. Also it’s directed by the sometimes decent director Ernest Dickerson, who has some credibility because he used to be Spike Lee’s cinematographer. Also because I kind of liked BONES.
But my friends I am sorry to report that NEVER DIE ALONE does not work. And I will try to explain why. Because that’s what I do.
DMX plays King David, a drug dealer with what you might call a pretty poor attitude towards other human beings, especially the ladies. In the opening scene, he is dead in a coffin and narrating about his life. “The Hindus have a word for it… ‘karma.’” Oh, thanks for introducing that exotic new concept to us there bud. Then it goes back to two days earlier and I was ready to see a thrilling story about the last two days before this guy got killed. (more…)
Military tribunals, Bush would have lost 6 out of 9 recounts, Ethnic profiling, + Amelie, Crying Freeman, Bones & The Wash
Friday, November 16th, 2001Well, it looks like I’m doin these columns once a month now, and I guess that’s better than nothin. This time I’ll be reviewing a handful of movies that have NOTHING to do with politics. I haven’t seen this Henry Porter witchcraft movie that everybody has a boner about but I have seen some other current pictures and some older ones that I will be discussing.
There’s a catch though. First I’m gonna hafta talk politics some more. I’ll keep it shorter, but this is more important than ever.
There is a grave threat to America right now. Well, another one. In addition to Islamic extremists crashing planes into our buildings, and right wing extremists sending anthrax to us in the mail, and turbulence symbolically knocking the tails and engines off of our American Airlines planes on Veteran’s Day as an accidental commentary on our foreign policy, now we have to worry about our acting president completely and blatantly abandoning the supposed ideals of America, and no one caring.
Well yeah, I was worried about that all along. Now it has happened. And we cannot just be silent about it.
Because when you attach a flag to your car, or talk about being proud to be an American, or say that you’re thankful we live in a free country, a democracy – it is clear what you are standing up for. Freedom and democracy. These are things we all believe in, and cherish. But these are not things our regime believes in at all. (more…)
