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Baby Boy
Columbia Pictures


8.8

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong sexuality, language, violence, and some drug use

Starring Tyrese Gibson, AJ Johnson, Ving Rhames, Snoop Dogg, Taraji Henson, Omar Gooding, and Tamara LaSeon Basszz

Ten years after "Boyz N the Hood," writer and director John Singleton returns to the same inner-city L.A. neighborhood and its complex social and political issues for the story of Jody (Gibson), a misguided, 20-year-old African-American who is really just a "baby boy" finally forced-kicking and screaming -- to face the commitments of real life.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	John Singleton
DIRECTED BY:	John Singleton
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 6, 2001 Video: November 6, 2001 Theatrical: June 27, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	100 minutes, Color / BW
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

USA Today Mike Clark

An easy movie to pick apart, but it lives, breathes and switches moods from humor to despair better than any American release this year.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Now Singleton, too, dares to take a hard look at his community. His characters are a little older, and he is older, too, and less forgiving.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Lacks the cumulative impact of "Boyz," since Singleton allows repetition and sermonizing to dull his theme about the infantilization of black males. But Baby Boy leaves you shaken.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Jody's story is told with so much heart -- and his character is acted with such a winning combination of playfulness, vulnerability and sexual dynamism by Mr. Gibson -- that you can forgive the occasionally incoherent storytelling, the overwrought moments and the haphazard, unconvincing excursions into dream and fantasy.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Sometimes gets repetitive and is slightly overlong. But it's got solid performances.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

What holds the movie together, however, is Gibson's broodingly responsive performance.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Kicks off the Oedipus theme that gallops through the story.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A movie that will act like a smack in the face to some audiences, while others may simply laugh in recognition.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Raunchy, provocative and often very funny.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

At once too neat and too messy, but films like this are too rare to leave it at that. Ragged but ambitious, it retains a core of genuine emotion -- this picture is doing the best it can, and although that may not be everything, it ought to count for something.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Superbly acted by everyone involved (Rhames does his best work since "Pulp Fiction"), the film is really more about character than plot, though frankly, at more than two hours, it could have used a bit more of the latter.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The characters are so full-bodied and the feelings so raw and complex that I'd call this the best thing he's (Singleton) done to date.

Slate David Edelstein

Rambling and conflicted as it is, it's one of the most entertaining African-American comedies of manners ever made.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

It's a feel-good movie that happens to have a lot of feel-bad in it. The gratuitous violence sucks, and the pat conclusion prompts one to shout don't believe the hope!.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Singleton just may be challenging us to laugh at the film or with it and then feel extremely uneasy for doing so. If so, that's admirable; if not, he's made a very strange soap opera.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's more ambitious and passionate than thoughtful. Singleton is better at criticizing than understanding, and he leaves too many characters lacking a legitimate voice.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Can be taken to task for its overt point-making, lackluster style and some late-on dramatic contrivances seemingly dragged in to provide a little violence.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

You may or may not like what you see, but there it is, indisputably, right in your face.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

It would have been enough that Singleton raise these difficult questions without trying to wrap them up, too, in the last five minutes.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Despite the audience pandering -- not just in its violence, but in its wall-to-wall sexual vulgarity -- there are terrific elements in Baby Boy.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie makes an over-long deal about Jody's immaturity and never seems to get beyond it.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

Pretty much a mess, but it also has a couple of long stretches that are extremely daring in that they reveal black family dynamics we've never seen on screen before.

Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams

Singleton's words are no fitting match for his visuals, and his metaphors are so heavy-handed -- they undermine the smart subtlety of the direction.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A mistaken message is a price a filmmaker pays when he tries to load weighty themes like the cycle of violence on an overgrown boy who scoots around on a bicycle.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Singleton has neither the emotional nor intellectual depth to do justice to his thesis. He is too in awe of the stereotypical hood lifestyles and macho posturings that he's trying to critique.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A preachy, monotonous failure hyped as a follow-up to his incendiary 1991 debut, "Boyz N the Hood."

The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jathiya N. gave it a 10:
This movie is very good. It has a realistic plot. Snoop and tyrese didint make the movie hard to watch.

Jeremy gave it a 5:
Well-made, but a failure for a simple reason: The main character is nothing more than an imature baby, so therefore, we don't care about him.

Jathiya M. gave it a 10:
Great movie very real.

Charmaine W. gave it a 10:
Great movie.

Esteban B. gave it an 8:
A good movie once you understand what its about, but in all a good movie.

Tarik T. gave it a 10:
Great acting. Great movie.

Paul P. gave it a 10:
Living in South Central Los Angeles, this movie hits close to home.

Baby Boy Columbia Pictures

Baby Boy
Columbia Pictures