Animal

When the violent gangster James "Animal" Allen (Ving Rahmes) is arrested and sent to prison, his teenage son Darius (Terrence Howard) is left with his mother, but she is assassinated and the boy is raised alone on the streets, becoming a criminal. While in the corrupt prison, Animal works for the powerful prisoner Kassada (Chazz Palminteri), but when he meets the revolutionary Berwell (Jim Brown), his view of life changes. Animal is released on probation and tries to have a straight life, but his past and his fame haunt him, while he sees that Darius is following his path in a criminal life.

"Animal" is a good movie, but the story has no surprises, showing the difficulties of a middle-age man that spent half of his life in jail to regenerate. His environment and his friends doom him to a low life. The cast is great and Ving Rhames has an amazing performance in a role tailored for him. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Animal"

"Animal" is much better than it's rating here... It's a powerful piece of work. The best thing about it are the great performances by Ving Rhames and Terrence Howard, including a nice support role by football legend Jim Brown. It's true, the production values here are very low, but in terms of story and especially the acting, it's a great thing to watch. It does not rely on stereotypes, yet shows important scenes from living in the neighborhood, criminal life, and making choices. There is some violence in it, but it's not the central part of the movie. It's mostly about the development of the characters. I think that with a bigger budget "Animal" would've gotten a much higher critical response. I enjoyed it very much, I thought the script and story were quite decent, but the most impressive part was the powerful performances by two of the greatest African-American actors today - Award nominee Terrence Howard and of course Ving Rhames. I highly recommend this one, do not be fooled by the ratings.

... rushed execution and obviously not a lot of production value(s). You could live with the latter, but the performances aren't the best either. Of course it's nice to see Ving Rhames in a lead role, but it'd be even better, if the script got sharpened too, so it would match his performance skills too.

The title of the movie gives you the main character and you also know, from the (V) behind the movies name here at IMDb, that it is directly produced for Video/DVD use. Terence Malick does elevate the movie too, but not as much as you'd think he would! The story (if you really want to know it before you watch it, read it here somewhere on the IMDb page) has been done before, so you might be used to see better movies, than this one on this particular topic ...

Ving Rhames plays "animal" the toughest guy on the street. Naturally he ends up in prison where he meets an old con, Berwell, played by football great Jim Brown. Berwell tries to make him understand that all the hate in society is part of a conspiracy led by the rich and powerful to keep the poor and middle class fighting among themselves. Divide and conquer. THEY want us to hate blacks and whites and hispanics. And hate homeless and homosexuals and convicts. And hate muslims and jews and catholics. If we're busy doing that, then we won't hate the rich and powerful - the ones we should hate.

Anyway, he explains this to animal and i'll let you watch the movie to see how much impact it has. I really liked this show but then, i like most prison movies.

I just saw a screening of this one. I was very happy with how the movie was. I love prison movies and love seeing how they live. Ving Rhames plays The Animal (James) a gangster who kills just for fun and ends up in prison for armed robbery and attempted murder. His son grows up to be just like his father. The Animal is a strong and true story about one man's choice and to have the guts to take it.

I liked this movie. I am a Ving Rhames fan and he did it again. If you like Ving Rhames and like prison movies and gangster movies I think you will like this one.

8/10 Stars in my book