Baby Boy
"The Best Film About The Hood Ever." -Shawn Edwards, FOX-TV Kansas City
Baby Boy is the powerful drama directed by John Singleton (Shaft, Boyz N the Hood) starring music superstars Tyrese Gibson and Snoop Dogg (Bones, Training Day). With knockout performances from Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible II, Pulp Fiction, Con Air) and A.J. Johnson (House Party, School Daze),
Baby Boy is a tough, honest and unflinching look at modern urban life.
Jody (Gibson) is a 20-year-old African American in South Central L.A. who is trying to live large but doesn't have a job. He's got two babies by two different women and still lives at home with his mother (Johnson). Growing up is tough on Jody, but a series of events involving his mother's new boyfriend Melvin (Rhames), his girlfriend Yvette and her ex-con ex-boyfriend Rodney (Snoop Dogg) force him to learn some hard lessons about living, loving and surviving as a man in the hood.
Member Reviews
Compelling and voyeuristic - Baboonvideo
ZIP-WORTHY IF: You are looking to revisit John Singleton's Boyz in the Hood roots
REVIEW: A shift away from the high-gloss of Shaft and 2 Fast 2 Furious, writer-director John Singleton returned to his Boyz N the Hood roots with this brave and compelling drama. Set in crime-plagued South Central L.A., Baby Boy focuses on what Singleton feels is a growing problem in the inner city: emotionally stunted, fatherless black men who simply refuse to grow up.
One such man is Jody (Tyrese Gibson), an unemployed 20-year-old with two children from two different relationships who continues to live at home with his mom (A.J. Johnson) thanks primarily to a complete lack of ambition to strive for anything else.
Baby Boy is too long by at least 20 minutes (the film runs 130) and the screenplay is slightly self-indulgent, but Singleton nevertheless draws his serious issues from real emotions and situations, often leaving the audience feeling like something of a voyeur to Jody's relationships, fights and feelings.
Model-turned-actor Gibson occasionally isn't up to the challenge (at times, his performance seems a bit too thoughtful), but Singleton surrounds him with a stellar supporting cast including Snoop Dogg as a venomous sociopath and Ving Rhames in his best performance since Pulp Fiction as Johnson's ex-convict boyfriend.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Compelling and voyeuristic - Baboonvideo
ZIP-WORTHY IF: You are looking to revisit John Singleton's Boyz in the Hood roots
REVIEW: A shift away from the high-gloss of Shaft and 2 Fast 2 Furious, writer-director John Singleton returned to his Boyz N the Hood roots with this brave and compelling ...