Urban Jungle

I, along with a large chunk of the male population of this world, believe that Angelina Jolie is one of the most beautiful creatures on this green Earth (or quite brown in some drought ridden places such as our backyard) and have since become a fan of her movies. One night in a family video renting, I walked up the aisles of the video store trying to find something that grabbed my attention. In the Thriller section, I found many copies of this movie, and I question the judgement of the staff, as this is quite clearly a drama, and a pretty good one. Fortunately, I did not rent it out that night, as my Father would have had kittens if he let me watch this (for the record, I personally think I should have waited until I was a bit older), so I waited until he wasn't the one paying for it, and I got it then.

Mekhi Phifer plays Jonny, a man who was involved in a robbery that went wrong, and as a result, an accomplice, Hayden is killed. Gloria (played -as usual- superbly by Angelina Jolie) was Hayden's sister, and confronts Jonny five years later after he gets out of jail, blaming him for the death of her brother. She asks her boyfriend, Patty, to kill Jonny, but for reasons that I shall not reveal, Patty knows that Jonny did not kill Hayden. Jonny settles back into Hell's Kitchen and trains to be a heavyweight champion.

Some of the scenes are a bit too long, some are a bit disturbing, some are a bit weird, and some of them have all these things mixed together.

But on the whole a good movie, but not one made for younger audiences. 8/10

p.s. I might not be a good judge of the pacing of this movie, because when I watched it, we had younger visitors, and they weren't allowed to watch it, so I had to keep stopping and starting it, which is a shocking way to watch a movie.

... about the American b-movies of the 90's that isn't exactly placeable anywhere. my own very young background is literary with movies as adiaphora, but it's a damn necessary one if today's society is to be at all comprehensible (which even then doesn't insure us of its comprehensibility for all that). the movie reviewed is a mish-mash of emotion, all misdirected, but sure as hell standing in their own right; that is, as open to ridicule. an honest look, however, at the 'private' life of modernity rarely entails one linear chain of events, affects, that can be deduced 'logically'. confusion is not only permitted and encouraged, but sustained throughout its madness, meaning as banished as the howls of the afflicted discordant and the 'possibilities' being presented are using us for its own instrumental reason without ever including our 'human potential', so why not put in the breaks and vegetate? seems to be the message of modern-day cynicism. sure as bunkers, you can't either blame or pity these neo-nihilists, put in their rightful place by a society all-too-much-like a Russia of the late 19th century. a simple "no" is not the truth but at the same time not an "affirmative" of what you in your heart of hearts suspect of untruth (covered up with courteous witty banter). there is no hypocrisy in such play-acting, but even those who refuse to intellectualize (don't believe in any form of "rationalization" whatsoever) and give way to the scurvy feelings and blurry outlines of their being, vaporize the untruth of a society as well as any truth makes its intellectual form ever. the one is descriptive, the other normative. this movie portrays how most human relationships are actually played out from beginning to end and it should give rise to wonder, if not awe, in humility. the sheer bulk of madness transforms itself before our very eyes into an intelligible quality, which we begin to fear. i'm willing to go as far as to say it's cathartic, but in the modern sense, which, unlike tragedy, doesn't anesthetize your defeature with a supplementary cord of meaning. as always, it's the raw fact of death that shines a light on life and serves as the usual wake-up call for the lazy 'human'. (jolie is great, by the way)

I for one am a huge Angelina Jolie fan, so when I picked up this movie at blockbuster I was hoping that it would turn out to be a really good film. I wasn't disappointed but the movie didn't blow me away. It does go in a lot of directions and it doesn't really officially resolve any of the problems. But I must say that Angelina Jolie and Mekhi Phifer gave great performances, despite the fact that the script was only okay. Despite the script I have to give the movie its credit, it was gritty, disturbing, even moving at times and it did keep me watching. I did feel like I was directly in Hell's Kitchen. This film shows the budding talents of two very good actors and I am glad that I had a chance to see it. So I would give the movie a 7 out of 10.

This is certainly one of the best films I've seen lately. It's a good surprise, once it doesn't seem to be so good when you read about it. The plot is basic in the beginning, but it turns into a fascinating drama and a breath-taking thriller. Angelina Jolie is again very well in her role.

The songs we hear all through the movie are very good. They're also a good reason to make this such a good film. We have a bit of everything here: rap, rock, folk... This is really something you can't miss.

I have to talk about the direction too. I think it's brilliant and remarkable.

my rate 8/10

I am amazed that this film got such a low score. I personally thought it was a very convincing and moving mood piece and was well acted all round. Quite clearly an indie film and a character study but has a plot that moves along quite quickly and gives plenty of opportunity for reflection without ever moralising or passing judgement or overtly trying to make a social or political statement. No clear good guys and bad guys but rather interesting and individual characters caught up in a bad situation. Apart from anything else it had a great soundtrack/score and the original song by Rosanna Arquette was fantastic!

Perhaps the problem is that Angelina Jolie fans picked this one up for a perve?