Urban Crime Movie #3
Synopsis: It’s 94
minutes of Tupac going crazy and busting caps into his straight-up G’s.
Blurb From the DVD
Jacket: “Q. Raheem. Bishop. Steel. They’re four Harlem friends who spend
their days hanging out and looking for a way to get the power and respect they
call Juice. Q hopes to earn respect by becoming a scratch ‘n’ mix DJ. Bishop
has a deadlier plan. He wants to take it through an armed robbery. And he wants
his crew to be with him.”
What Did I Learn?:
In the words of one minor character: “Just
‘cause you pour syrup on something doesn’t make it pancakes!”
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Movie If: You know that “Juice” and “murder”go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Really?: 1) So
wait... Q is in high school, and his girlfriend is both older, and has a
full-time job at the local hospital? Um... yeah, I don’t believe that set-up.
2) Does anyone know why Bishop (Tupac) feels the need to ice his homies? I
mean, it’s pretty clear they don’t want a cut of the loot, and there’s no chance
they’re going to rat on him to the cops.
Rating: I wanted
to like Juice more than I did; Tupac
Shakur demonstrates he had some real acting talent, and the movie features some
great early-1990s rap from Big Daddy Kane, Eric B. & Rakim, Salt N’ Pepa,
and other artists. The biggest problem I had with Juice is that the story feels fabricated, and I didn’t believe its
basic premise: these guys have known each other from grade school, and yet
Bishop somehow feels the need to kill all of them after a violent robbery. It
also loses a lot of dramatic tension after Raheem gets bumped off, and he’s the
first to go. [Shit – was that a spoiler?
Ok, no more details!] 6/10 stars.
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