Menace II Society (1993)

Menace II Society is an excellent and powerful Hood classic that combines terrific direction,a great cast and a fine score. All of those elements make Menace II Society a great Hood movie,one of the best films of the 1990s and The Hughes Brothers at their best.

Set in the South Central Los Angeles section of Watts,California,Menace II Society tells the story of Caine(Tyrin Turner),a street hustler who has just recently graduated from High School and is on the streets. Now,Caine is trying to survive on the streets of Watts either by starting a new life on the positive side or become a victim of the streets.

Menace II Society is a brilliant and unforgettable Hood movie classic that came out two years after John Singleton's landmark Hood classic Boyz N The Hood(1991)and if Boyz N The Hood is The Godfather of Hood Movies,then Menace II Society would be the Goodfellas(a film that The Hughes Brothers used as a template)of the Hood genre. Right from it's shocking and disturbing opening scene,Menace II Society is a film that pulls you into a dark,urban nightmare that pulls no punches and is a movie that offers no salvation or safe keeping. Despite the tragedy and sadness that was in Boyz N The Hood you felt that there was hope at the end,but in Menace II Society there is no hope or happiness and you will feel that nothing will be good for the characters. Where as Boyz N The Hood focused on a couple of good kids trying to survive in their neighborhood,Menace II Society gives viewers an unflinching look into the world of Watts,California showing world where most of the main characters are criminals and despite being surrounded by urban decay, violence and death don't seem to be bothered by it but embellish it because it is a way of life in the characters eyes and with some of the characters there is no other way. The carelessness and apathy of the some of the characters gives MIIS a nihilistic outlook that is bleak and at times reminds me of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange(1971)and Tim Hunter's River's Edge(1987)two other films that also have a bleak overtone. What is also great about MIIS is the style of the movie is almost like a Film Noir whether's Caine's narration or the dark lighting that is in the background that makes the movie realistic and at the same time surreal and dream like. The violence in MIIS is shocking and very brutal with nothing being toned down for the viewers showing how violence is shocking and horrific and when the violence happens it will disturb viewers mentally and physically with it's intensity and power. The violence in MIIS is not meant to be fun or exciting but to send a message that violence keeps happening and it's an on going cycle in the hood and ghetto and the violence also sends a message that the things that you do can come back to bite you in a big way. The main character Caine is a fascinating one because we never know what to make of him as a character he's not a good person but he's not a bad person either he's neither a hero or villain because most of his actions good or bad make him a complex character with depth. Caine is a character who is smart as well and you figured that if it wasn't for him being a street hustler he could've been a doctor or banker but drug dealing and hustling on the street is all that he knew what to do. Even though we don't know Caine is a good guy or bad guy there were some scenes in the movie where we as the viewer have sympathy for Caine whether you agree with his actions or not and he

Fmovies: Menace II Society portrays urban hood life during the early 1990's perfectly and outstandingly. Unlike Boyz N the Hood, the film gives us an inner perspective on hood violence and the bloody consequences of certain individuals and may I say, they have done it fantastically. The cast members played their role momentously and their performances were exceptional, particularly Tyrin Turner and Larenz Tate.

Although the consistent violent scenes, the movie puts realism in several successful ways and that is why this is one of my favourite films of the 1990's. Powerful and poignant.

Okay, after 20 years of reading and hearing about this movie by The Hughes (Albert and Allen) Brothers, I finally watched Meanace II Society on YouTube. Mainly about teen hood Caine (Tyrin Turner) and his life with fellow South Central L.A. pal O-Dog (Larenz Tate), among other events of that time, I found the whole thing a little upsetting with what I've now found out had the most use of the f-word of any of these black movies I've been watching these last few days, not to mention the constant violence. Still, it does get better when Caine's possible girlfriend Ronnie (Jada Pinkett before becoming Mrs. Will Smith) offers a possible out by moving out with her and her son Anthony (Jullian Roy Doster) to Atlanta. But then another girl he fooled around with named Ilena (Erin Leshawn Wiley) tells him she's pregnant and...oh, watch the film if you want to know. In summary, Menace II Society didn't really pick my interest until the last 30 minutes and I started to see it in a whole new light. So on that note, I highly recommend it with reservations.

Menace II Society fmovies. The directorial debut of twin brothers Albert and Allen Hughes, Menace II Society is a tough, no nonsense look at youthful black life in the Watts section of Los Angeles. The Hughes Brother's movie charts the hapless life of Caine (Tyrin Turner) as he seeks to escape the ghetto. The son of both a drug dealer (Samuel L. Jackson in a potent appearance) and an addict, Tyrin, surrounded by guns and a machismo culture, is tied to his friends and the way of life afforded him. Even as love and a chance of a way out arises with Jada Pinkett's (terrific) pretty Ronnie, it's doubtful if Tyrin will escape from the revolving door of death.

Menace II Society had a troubled beginning, refused a video certificate on the grounds of its profane language and brutally violent scenes, it has since gone on to be viewed as one of the finer exponents of anti-violence involving Black Americans. That wasn't always the case though, many critics in the 90s were prone to calling it a film that glamorises the lifestyle of "Hood" gangsters, but offered a saver of sorts by correctly saying it had realism in amongst the harshness. Certainly the dialogue and regional slang was refreshing to hear, thus affording "Menace" and its makers praise for keeping it real, so to speak.

Ineviatbly comparisons were (are) drawn with John Singleton's 1991 film, Boyz n the Hood. But although "Menace" is rawer, uncompromising and more visceral with impact, it lacks the intelligence of Singleton's film. Where "Boyz" had fully rounded characters, character with which to hang your hat on to, "Menace" is just a social group of youths we neither know or care about outside of the group, ego driven dynamic. When lead protagonist Tyrin is trying to deal with his inner conflict, we the audience are treated to standard run of the mill melodrama. The streetwise edginess that the Hughes' began their film with (the opening is nigh on horrific) has long since gone as they try to make a film that touches all the bases of Black Americana.

Easily the most realistic of all the ghetto films made, in fact the film at times feels like we are on a documentary drive around downtown Watts. Menace II Society, however brutal it clearly is, has loaded the gun and shot the bullet, only to see it narrowly miss the whole target it was aiming for. Still it's one hell of an experience though. 8/10

Back then the Hughes Brothers would never even name Boyz'N'the Hood. Not just because it wasn't their influence, but because people like to compare movies. Especially when it seems like they are similar. And I say seem, because while the surface may suggest that, this is a whole different beast of a movie and a story.

This is way more gritty and no one will tell you that it is a feel good story. But the influence of Scarface and other movies of that kind are apparent. Like a Goodfellas tracking shot and many other things. The brothers may have been very young, but they knew what they wanted ... and they were lucky enough to get (most of?) it! Like the cast, but also the overall finance for the movie ... which brings us back to Boyz ... over the years they themselves came to terms, that their movie probably got green-lit because of the success of Boyz ... and that's not a bad thing.

And while this is down and dirty, like Scarface it's a warning, a tale of things that can and will go wrong. What goes around, comes around ... there's a lot to read into this, but the Hughes Brothers wanted show how things were ... and the influence of the movie was felt. Especially with other movies trying to copy or at least pay homage to Menace ...

I saw this film the weekend it opened. At the time I was 33, a white male living in NYC. When I went to the theater, I noticed that most of the audience was Black and in their late teens. For some reason, they felt that this was a good "date" movie. When the movie began, and the Korean Grocery scene was presented, the audience went wild with comments like "Yeah, Yeah, Kill them!!". I must say I got a little nervous. But, as the movie progressed, I got absorbed in it. I liked Cane and I even liked O'Dog. When the movie ended, I started crying. I was embarassed. Then I noticed that the Black teenage guys around me were crying too. I applaud the Hughes Brothers for making a movie that is able to connect with so many people. I still cry while watching it on video. "Do you care if you live or die?"