Product Description

Get ready for action with this explosively exciting hit! On the streets they call cash dead presidents. And that's just what a Vietnam veteran (Larenz Tate -- MENACE II SOCIETY) is after when he returns home from the war only to find himself drawn into a life of crime. With the aid of his fellow vets he plans the ultimate heist -- a daring robbery of an armored car filled with unmarked U.S. currency! From the Hughes Brothers, acclaimed directors of the smash hit MENACE II SOCIETY -- you'll love every pulse-pounding second as these bold thieves risk it all for the score of a lifetime!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4489 in DVD
• Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
• Released on: 1998-05-20
• Rating: NC-17
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 119 minutes

Features

• Get ready for action with this explosively exciting hit! On the streets, they call cash "Dead Presidents". And that is just what a Vietnam veteran (Larenz Tate -Menace II Society) is after when he returns home from the war, only to find himself drawn into a life of crime. With the aid of his fellow vets he plans the ultimate heist -a daring daylight robbery of an armored car filled with unmarked U

Amazon.com
Twin brother codirectors Albert and Alan Hughes planned their first film, the 1991 ghetto crime drama Menace II Society as a response to John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood, which they considered wimpy and moralistic. They set their sights on The Deer Hunter in this ambitious follow-up, and they just about pull it off. Larenz Tate (from Why Do Fools Fall in Love) plays Anthony Curtis, an open-hearted African American teenager who gets shipped out to Vietnam with several of his pals, witnesses unspeakable horrors, and then struggles to readjust to civilian life. The evolving textures of life in a declining inner-city neighborhood over a period of a decade are seamlessly evoked, and there's enough nuanced character development and personal interaction for a seven-hour miniseries. Still in their early 20s, the Hughes brothers are already poised and masterful moviemakers; they cover an enormous amount of historical and emotional ground, and every twist and turn is crystal clear. They betray their inexperience only at the very end, in an elaborately staged heist sequence that, while stunningly executed, feels a bit desperate, as if they were reaching blindly for a big payoff. Chris Tucker (Rush Hour) has a startling supporting role as a kid who becomes junkie during the war, and never quite recovers. --David Chute

From The New Yorker
Albert and Allen Hughes's first film, "Menace II Society," was an exciting blast of ghetto life, loaded with edgy humor that masked a deeper, more thoughtful despair. Their new picture-about a young black man's journey from the Bronx to Vietnam and back again-is an ambitious misfire. In the early scenes, which introduce the main character (Larenz Tate) and his friends and family, the Hugheses find a natural humor and a soulful rhythm. Then the friends ship off to Vietnam, are hardened by the insanity they live through there, return to an America that offers them little opportunity, and turn to crime. Although the movie is disjointed, the filmmakers pull off some bravura sequences (the armored-car robbery at the end is spectacular), and they know how to get a scene moving and build on it with a Scorsese-like sweep. Tate, Keith David, and Bokeem Woodbine put a great deal of heart into their performances, but because the characters are little more than types the film turns into one more indict-the-system polemic with little emotional pull. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker