On J List of Movie Reviews
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Juice (1992)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
6/04, 10/05, 6/20
10/05:
There's nothing juicy about Juice which is a typical black-gang-gone-wrong picture.
The acting is about 90% solid, especially from Omar Epps and Tupac Shakur. Vincent Laresca as Radames still makes me laugh;
his character should try comedy for a living. The story is clichéd, so it's rather predictable right from the start, knowing
what's going to happen. At least, I like the fast pace.
All in all, Juice seems to have it but is pretty much ho-hum.
6/20:
Juice is a fast-paced urban ghetto picture that takes a look at black-on-black violence.
According to the FBI, from 1976 to 2005, 94% of black victims were killed by other blacks. To squash the fingerpointing
toward racism, the victimization rate for blacks was six times higher than the rate for whites (29.6 vs. 4.7 per 100,000)
while the offending rate for blacks was about eight times higher than the rate for whites (36.9 vs. 4.8 per 100,000). Black
males who were 18-24 years old had the highest homicide offending rate of any group.
Put a gun in the hands of a male, and he suddenly thinks he owns the world. That's the reaction of Bishop which struck
the beginning of the end for him and his crew. Therefore, Juice is a compelling picture, thanks to the debuting
actors Omar Epps, who was 17 at that time, and Tupac Shakur. Because of his frequent in-your-face talk, Vincent Laresca as
Radames is a funny guy.
It's nice to see a couple of stars in Juice: Queen Latifah and Samuel L. Jackson. His wife, LaTanya Richardson, also
appears as Steel's mother. Many of the characters have nice fashion, and the music and the dialogue go a long
way, too. Mainly shot on location in Harlem, New York, the editing is excellent, hence the fast pace.
All in all, Juice is a classic 90's black urban youth picture.