Menace II Society

The early 90’s was flush with movies about gangs and life in African-American neighborhoods. Some were good, some weren’t. This is not a controversial statement. Menace II Society is stuck in between the notable and the forgettable, a decent movie carried by performances and realism, and brought down by pedestrian filmmaking and predictability. The movie is well-acted all around. Tyrin Turner is very good as Caine, the tragic protagonist, who is brought up in gangs and drug culture, and can’t help but succumb to it even when he has a network of people trying to lift him up above it. There is a want to do the right thing, but there’s also a resignation to him; he feels condemned to a life of drug dealing and drive-bys, so he might as well embrace it. The supporting cast fills their roles nicely too, from Jada Pinkett as the ex-girlfriend of a buddy in prison, to Caine’s gang member friends, and the people in Caine’s life trying to get him to change his ways. The movie itself is careful not to glorify the world he lives in; there’s no kingpin living large in a penthouse, no high life, nothing. Everything good that can be had can be taken away. Bad things happen to good people. It’s not a joyful watch, but it’s a realistic one. On the flip side, though, there’s elements of the movie that just don’t work. Caine’s narration is a huge problem, as it is almost entirety used for exposition dumps and to paper over plot jumps. The movie loves to use fades to black to transition scenes, which gives the movie a cheesy after-school special feeling. And while I certainly didn’t grow up in south central LA or in a gang, the movie’s dialogue feels like it’s going overboard with the vulgarity and use of a particular word. Maybe it’s realistic, I don’t know, I’m a white guy from the suburbs. But it sure felt like over-compensation. But the biggest problem is that the movie is entirely too predictable from the first moment. Sometimes, that’s not a bad thing; you set up something and pay it off. But you can honestly see where this is going the moment the prologue is over. It makes the movie feel like it just kinda chugs along to an ending you’ve been waiting on for 90 minutes. By being so obvious, it also robs the movie of being unique. It’s not bad, but it also doesn’t do much of anything to stand out either. There’s nothing memorable here. It’s a movie about gang violence. This is to this genre what, say, a Steven Seagal movie is to the action genre; good enough, but below the Stallones and Schwarzeneggers of the genre. A B-tier movie.