Product Description

Get ready for FRESH -- the intense, action-packed hit that wowed critics and riveted audiences everywhere! Disenchanted by the harsh realities of life in the city, a smart, streetwise kid nicknamed Fresh strives to create a better future for himself and his family. Fighting back in the only way he knows how, Fresh defies the odds by staying one move ahead of the local criminals in a dangerous game of survival! With extraordinary breakthrough performances by Samuel L. Jackson (PULP FICTION, JURASSIC PARK) and young Sean Nelson as Fresh, this is electrifying, edge-of-your-seat entertainment!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63661 in DVD
• Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
• Released on: 2002-02-12
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.com
Boaz Yakin's astounding debut feature looks at the violent world of the projects through the eyes of a 12-year-old drug runner. Sean Nelson delivers a quiet but intense performance as Michael--street name Fresh--a cynical but introspective kid grown up fast and hard on the killing streets of the projects. Samuel L. Jackson costars as Fresh's estranged father, a speed chess hustler in the city park whose dispassionate philosophy--the chess board as life--becomes the film's central metaphor, as Fresh plots a brilliant, coldly brutal plan to save himself and his junkie sister from his world of drug dealers and street violence. Yakin's assured direction delivers a vividly realized world in bold, crisp images and an austere but poetic style that captures the dispassionate point of view of a heart-hardened adolescent street survivor. The excellent score by former Police-man Stewart Copeland, his most haunting since Rumblefish, mixes smooth symphonic sounds with bluesy guitars and syncopated percussion, giving the soundtrack the same sad intimacy as Yakin's visuals. The world of Fresh is alive with danger that threatens to extinguish all the wonder and joy of childhood--the film's most devastating moment observes Fresh helplessly trying to stop the bleeding of a schoolmate, a girl he has a crush on, caught by a stray bullet from a senseless playground murder. As Fresh loses his innocence playing street thugs and drug dealers like pieces on a chess board, he becomes the greatest victim of all. --Sean Axmaker

From The New Yorker
A grim tale of New York youth fouled up in the drug trade. Fresh (Sean Nelson) runs heroin, plays truant, and annoys the rest of his family; finally, inspired by chess moves learned from his no-good father (Samuel L. Jackson), he turns the tables on two local dealers. Apart from one breathtaking spasm of violence at a basketball game, Boaz Yakin's first film is dulled by its own earnestness; it makes its big point about the moral limbo of these lives, then keeps on making it. Furious, but no fun. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker