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97
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xx
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72
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35
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57
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47
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61
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93
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xx
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54
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66
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54
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39
Young People F**king
45
Zombie Strippers
97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
93
WALL-E
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Paranoid Park
80
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
75
Boy A
74
Mongol
73
Kung Fu Panda
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
72
Priceless
72
Transsiberian
71
To the Limit
71
Tropic Thunder
70
Standard Operating Procedure
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
63
Planet B-Boy
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
63
This Christmas
62
Mister Foe
61
Stuck
61
On the Rumba River
61
Incredible Hulk, The
57
Stone Angel, The
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
55
Sukiyaki Western Django
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
54
What We Do Is Secret
53
Mister Lonely
52
Milarepa
49
Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
48
Death Defying Acts
47
Strangers, The
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
45
Zombie Strippers
44
Henry Poole is Here
39
Young People F**king
37
War, Inc.
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
34
Happening, The
33
Elite Squad
32
Perfect Holiday, The
25
Hell Ride
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
xx
Whaledreamers
xx
Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
Beer for My Horses
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Menace II Society
New Line Cinema
MPAA RATING: R for strong violence, drug use and language
Starring
Tyrin Turner,
Larenz Tate,
Samuel L. Jackson,
Jada Pinkett Smith,
and
Charles S. Dutton
A Watts teenager becomes so immersed in his violent world, he can't get out. (New Line Cinema)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Tyger Williams (also story)
Albert Hughes (story)
Allen Hughes (story)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Albert Hughes
Allen Hughes
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 28, 1997
Video: January 12, 1994
Theatrical: May 26, 1993
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
97 minutes, Color |
| 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...
100
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Nothing the Hughes brothers have done in their videos for Tone Loc, Tupac Shakur and others prepares you for the controlled intensity and maturity they bring to their stunning feature debut.
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
As well-directed a film as you'll see from America this year, an unsentimental and yet completely involving story of a young man who cannot see a way around his fate.
100
Film Threat
Brad Laidman
The film is one chillingly authentic scene after another... In the end it's more of a war movie than "Saving Private Ryan" ever was.
100
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Bleak, brilliant, and unsparing.
90
Washington Post
Hal Hinson
Though brilliant, Menace II Society is definitely a film to guard yourself against. There's not a trace of softness or sentimentality. At times, the picture takes on the scary you-are-there verisimilitude of a tabloid-TV show.
90
Variety
Leonard Klady
Fierce, violent and searing in its observation, the film makes previous excursions seem like a stroll through the park.
88
Chicago Tribune
Johanna Steinmetz
A film of great integrity, assurance and political passion, if not driving plot. [26 May 1993, Tempo, p.3]
88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Menace II Society has a devastating impact. Few films possess the power to keep an audience sitting in stunned silence after the end credits begin rolling, but this is one of them.
80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
May just be the best in its genre… Entertainment and radical street preaching, all rolled into one. If it tells black kids not to try this at home, it also revels cinematically in blam-blam-you're-dead. This is what makes the movie maddening -- and what gives it strength.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
As uncomfortable as it is to have your nose shoved in this nightmare, its unforgettable in its violent lyricism and the bloody power of its message.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The movie's biggest weakness is in the presentation of Caine's grandparents.... The attempt, it seems, is to show a potentially positive influence in Caine's life. But the grandparents come across as canned characters, corny and concocted. [26 May 1993, Daily Notebook, p.E1]
75
USA Today
Mike Clark
An unusually knowing movie from filmmakers of any age, both in its coldly clinical viewpoint and assured filmmaking style that even puts fresh spin on a routine police interrogation. [26 May 1993, Life, p.8D]
70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
This shocking, violent, and unsentimental (albeit sensationalized) drama about a second-generation drug dealer (Turner) and the callous world he lives in, produced by "To Sleep With Anger's" Darin Scott, is terrifically acted.
70
Los Angeles Times
Peter Rainer
Their instincts as filmmakers override their instincts as moralizers. Menace II Society is best--and most shocking--when it just sets out its horrors and lets us find our own way. [26 May 1993, Calendar, p.F-1]
70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
More acutely than any movie before, it gives cinematic expression to the hot-tempered, defiantly nihilistic ethos that ignites gangster rap.
60
Empire
Kim Newman
It sets some sort of record for use of the expressions "nigga" and "muthafucka".
60
TV Guide
Staff (Non Credited)
It lacks the vision, and the fully defined characters, of "Boyz (in the Hood)." Tyrin never becomes more than the sum of his conflicting impulses--he's a composite sample of a social group rather than a fully-fledged individual.
60
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
The Hughes brothers' directing compensates a good bit for the story's predictability. [5 July 1993, p.26]
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Because the society in Menace II Society is boxed in sociologically, the picture (for all its strengths) is boxed in esthetically. Already, this genre is beginning to seem as much a victim as the victims it portrays.
 The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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