Animal

This is the story of a man nick named Animal. Baddest of the bad, Animal was the head of a crew in ghetto neighborhood he lived in. One day he's arrested and sent to jail leaving behind a wife and child. While in jail for years he continues his violent ways, at the same time his son takes after his old man and becomes known as "Little Animal". With the help of a fellow prisoner Animal changes his way and is eventually paroled. Back at home he now must struggle with carving a out a new life while trying to figure out out how to save his son from ending up like him, or worse.

I stumbled upon this film by accident and I'm glad I did. Animal is a brutal, heartfelt look at life in the "hood", how nothing ever changes, and what it takes to change things. Its a well told story that has some of the best performances of the year in any film. Every one in this movie is excellent from Ving Rhames on down. The acting alone is reason enough to see this film, however there is a very real story being told. It will move you and break your heart.

Forgive me I finished the film not long ago and I still feel the effects of this wonderful movie.Its left me with a loss of words. I think all I can really say is see this film and be moved too.

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

This a real movie about thug life and the inescapable revolving door trap that is so hard to break. Ving Rhames plays the animal which is not an accurate name for his character ,since his character is no different than a mob boss or a drug cartel kingpin.... this is how you have to be to survive on the streets.. excellent acting by Jim Brown who in real life is a PEACE ACTIVIST.. Ving Rhames does an excellent performance ,, who i think is worthy of an academy award nomination....Chazz Palminteri also performed well as a supporting actor.... this is a must see movie for Kids going down the wrong path in life,, since it shows the consequences of a leading a violent lifestyle....

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.

... 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 ...