Belly

The power of the image. Something Hype and Korine both understand

Tries to be Scarface, Boyz N the Hood, and Menace 2 Society but the film is completely shallow. Hype Williams has a lot of style being that he has loads of credibility as a music video director but for feature films he doesn't understand pacing, dramatic weight, or narrative. Belly is still an interesting film to look at if you can just ignore the rather unoriginal and lame gangster subject matter.

The opening 10 minutes or so you’re just floating. Pure cinema. Rest is decent. Kind of shocking Hype never made another movie after this one.

The story is largely either boring or incomprehensible but this is a tonal and visual masterpiece

_jaw dropping_ photography. brilliant set-design, almost every shot feels like a high-budget music video from the late 90s-early 00s. the plot is mostly incoherent but you should definitely stick with it.

Nicedmxacapella+99+barelypaidattention+killedatdinneroverdumbshitlol+Nasoneofworstactorseverlool+ministergetsdmxtochooselife

Director of photography Malik Sayeed is the star here. Early on Belly has a certain hypnotic, dreamlike quality, but this is quickly killed by a script severely lacking in narrative drive and characterization. Things happen, people get shot, other people get shot in retaliation, none of it carries any weight or happens to characters we have any investment in. Atmospheric and nice to look at but deadly dull.

Funny how they put on Gummo at the beginning, considering that I'm pretty certain this is where Harmony Korine stole the style of Spring Breakers from.

Story is nothing, aesthetics is everything.

Interesting visually, but that loses its charm quickly due to how slow the film moves by and how uninteresting it is in terms of story.

it is, despite it's flaws, the most vibrant distillation of hip hop in the late 90s. a sleek, nihilistic piece of abstract art. DMX was, is, a firecracker. Nas might be one of my favorite rappers, but I have come to terms that he is not one of my favorite actors. but it's Method Man seen here that's the most natural character actor – and time has proven that correct. lastly, WHY THE FUCK DON'T MOVIES LOOK LIKE THIS ANYMORE??!?

The acting and writing are amateurish throughout, but the scorched cinematography has a charm that rises above its emptily flashy sense of technique.

Some of acting is cringe-worthy, but thed stylish mood-themed cinematography and overall story arc is pretty unforgettable.

Hype Williams is not a good film director; he uses color saturations and style without purpose, which makes it look like the music videos from which he came. Also, the acting in this is pretty bad, and the overall story is pretty weak. It's not a good film, but maybe if you had it, it's tolerable enough to watch. DMX is the only one I felt had any modicum of talent. And narrative voice overs? Always a bad sign of lack of expositional idea. So yeah, I didn't like it, but I didn't mind it.

My old roommate used to play this constantly. It blows and I hate it.