Back in the Day

I watched this movie out of a lack of anything else on at the time. Quickly the movie grabbed me with the depth of the characters and subtle plot. I was quite surprised to see that the rating given by my satellite provider did not show any stars.

I will not give any spoilers to the plot-line or outcome but most of the characters had at least some redeeming value. Until the very last minute I did not know how it would turn out. Frequently, you can pick-up the formula and predict a story direction. I could not do that with this film.

I would recommend this as one of the finer films of this genre.

o dear god i suffered having to watch this film FOUR times in my sisters house and was it dreadful a story of sex and guns and very cheap unexplained acting unless you are at gunpoint being told to watch this avoid it Ja Rule just proved he cannot act Ving Rhames also gave the most dreadful acting ever in any of his films there was not one part of this film made me laugh or make me jump or feel any emotion i would be surprised people actually enjoyed this i have seem some dreadful films in my life but this would be in my five worst films ever the music in it wasn't good and the storyline i think was made up by a couple of guys who ordered a pizza and just sat down wrote ten bullet points and then made it into a film absolutely dreadful

It was not as bad as SozeTheKeyser said it was. But then, I did not buy it. I saw it as a feature on one of the movie channels on the satellite service I use. I reserve purchasing for more family-oriented films. While this would not have met my criteria for purchasing, it was nonetheless an OK film.

Ja Rule did a better-than-most-rappers-turned-actors job on what is apparently his first time out as an actor (in a leading role, no less!). There was another movie I saw on BET with another rapper in the starring role. It truly stunk, and even the merciful breaks from commercials did not save that one. In fact even when I was out of the room hearing the audio, it stunk even worse. "Back In The Day" was not such a stinker by far.

Ja Rule did a decent job. Maybe even better than passable. He did not overplay the moments. He seemed to take directing well, which leads to the subject of directing. I think it was a very well directed film, and would like to see more from James Hunter. Even though he had some real power hitters to work with, there seemed to be a good gel among the actors that made the writing of Mr. Hunter and Michael Raffanello credible.

It was a low budget film. There is no doubt about that. It was an indie. You put these two together and you get "Back In The Day". There were not the obligatory BOOM! SPLATTER! and ZOOM! that marks so many wannabe blockbusters, but instead the focus was on the story, which while common did bring some surprises that most may not anticipate. I did not, although usually I do. Sometimes it felt like a play without the music. This is not a bad thing, but a comment on the feel of the movie.

I think Rhames (one of my top 5 favorite actors), Grier (who could not love this ageless beauty), Morton (my neighbor), Morgan (the dimples I wished I could have married) and Ali (ok, so Ms. Grier has competition) all did a wonderful job. This was far from a "paying the bills" project as I am sure that all of these in-demand actors can live very well off the residuals of their past work.

That is all from me on "Back in The Day". It was not a film that I would purchase for my personal library, but if I see it in the TV listings again, I would watch it. I love morality plays that are honest yet sensitive. One thing I noticed in this film, which many lack, especially those surrounding Black characters,was the respect given to role of Christianity and its more conscientious leaders in the community. I appreciated the lack of hyperbolic and rhetorical dialog and character stereotypes. I would like to thank the writers, director and actors for a decent "B" movie.

Why did I buy this movie on DVD?, Well the short answer would be: I really don't know. As for the longer version, it pretty much comes down to the fact that I genuinely like Tatyana Ali and she plays Alicia in this.

Now does Tatyana Ali give a genuinely good effort in this movie? I must say that it is one of the better, and she is shaping up to be a rather decent actress. I am very much looking forward to see her in action, when better material will be available.

This being said, this movie was terrible - and my score is given based on this: 1 star for not being the worst movie I've seen, 1 star for the performance of Tatyana Ali, and 1 star for not thinking that it only deserves 2 stars, there are worse movies for that.

Ja Rule should stick to rapping, not my favourite rapper to say the least, but some seem to like him - and if he is contained there, I would be delighted not to see him contaminate the acting scene.

Ving Rhames: Ah man, Marcellus Wallace what are you doing here - you used to be cool man. Just because Michael Caine is a fiercely brilliant actor, who has been in so many terrible flicks as well as good, you don't have to copy him Ving.

The rest of the semi big names in the cast: It's OK, there are bills to be paid, and we all have to do things we're not proud of time to time.

The movie itself. It so massively flawed, it's pretty difficult to know where to start. It's more like a bunch of scenes thrown in together, as were the director to say "we need to tell this, and we need to tell that". There is a story, unfortunately there is nothing surprising about or within it. To say the least, the plot changes in the story were overly obvious and it was therefore predictable what was going to happen all the time.

To sum up in one word: Reallynotgood

"Back in the Day" is an interesting, but flawed effort. Ja Rule stars as Reggie Cooper, a honest but sad man trying to cope with the death of his father. He meets his old friend J-Bone (Ving Rhames) who tries to force Reggie into a life of crime. Reggie also falls in love with Alica (Tatyana Ali) who is the preacher's daughter. Now he has to choose: Love Or Crime.

Ja Rule does a competent job as Reggie. At least he's trying to act. Ving Rhames is perfect as J-Bone. He brings a lot of energy and menace into the role. Joe Morton as the preacher is his usual excellent self, but he doesn't do much. The same problem for Giancarlo Esposito as Reggie's Dad. He needed more screen time. I don't want to say this, but Pam Grier is pretty awful as Mrs. Cooper. She overacts every scene and brings the movie down. Tia Carrere and Frank Langella are in it but don't do anything substantial for the plot.

In the end: You should see it for the skilled performances of Ving Rhames and Joe Morton and the grittiness of the writing and directing.

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