Menace II Society - Movie Review

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Life in the hood is pretty bleak, but if you're Caine or O-Dog, it doesn't get much worse than this. The Hughes brothers' widely hailed (and often imitated) ode to life in South Central L.A. is morose and overflowing with violence -- to the point where you'll get blown away just for making a comment about someone's mother. Our hero Caine wants to get away from it all -- but his efforts don't amount for much. In the end, Menace isn't much more than a tragedy about street life -- but it never really makes a point. If this world is so bad, why glamorize it so much? To be sure, it's in an influential and powerful story -- but it comes off as considerably more shallow than the reality it claims to portray.

Facts and Figures

Year: 1993

Run time: 97 mins

In Theaters: Wednesday 26th May 1993

Box Office Worldwide: $27.9M

Budget: $3.5M

Distributed by: Warner Bros.

Production compaines: New Line Cinema

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 3.5 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Fresh: 28 Rotten: 5

IMDB: 7.5 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes

Producer: Darin Scott

Screenwriter: Tyger Williams

Starring: Tyrin Turner as Caine 'Kaydee' Lawson, Larenz Tate as Kevin 'O-Dog', Glenn Plummer as Pernell, Jada Pinkett Smith as Ronnie, Samuel L. Jackson as Tat Lawson, June Kyoto Lu as Grocery Store Woman (as June Kyoko Lu), Toshi Toda as Grocery Store Man, Reginald Ballard as Clyde, Khandi Alexander as Karen Lawson, Jullian Roy Doster as Anthony, Brandon Hammond as Five Year Old Caine, Anthony Johnson as Tony

Also starring: Samuel L Jackson, Darin Scott, Tyger Williams