Rating: Summary: Hip hop film ought to be better than this Review: "State Property," a hip-hop variation of the "Scarface" tale, is so reprehensible it approaches a snuff eight-millimeter. Like a lot of rap music, which thinks the existence of wanton cruelty, violence and pain automatically legitimizes a song drawing out its every crass detail, the movie is a cheerfully amoral romp through all the horrible, totalitarian things one bully can do to a weaker person - humiliation, dehumanization, torture, murder - with a turn of the tables at the end that supposed to comment on this romp as if it was all very, very bad. Sure. Ask the film's admirers - or even the participants, including indicted star Beanie Siegel - where they stand on the use of force to snuff out anything - enemies, annoyances, acquaintances, even friends - that interfere with their designs of all-consuming power. Dictators rise on such thoughts.Siegel plays a local criminal who, after a thug epiphany of sorts at a topless bar, wipes out legions of drug dealers in an effort to carve out turf. There are stockpiles of men willing to do his bidding while he watches on in his neon-colored swish-swish outfit, pawing at a fence like some caged animal -yes, I'm not kidding, Siegel paws - as a mass execution goes down on a basketball court. To show he is some kind of leader, Siegel occasionally spits out obvious truisms; to show he has a trace of humanity, the movie trots a girlfriend and child across the screen, the idea being if you have them, you must be something less than a total bogeyman, although such accoutrements didn't excuse Stalin, or Saddam. Because "State Property" cannot possibly condone this behavior for an entire movie, Siegel eventually matches up against an equal armed foe and the fate that's predetermined for a straight-away lunatic like him. Unlike Hype Williams' "Belly," which very much wanted to have a message but buried it under the pyrotechnics of cars, girls and jewelry needed to pull young black audiences into the theaters, "State Property" has no aspirations beyond being hard and cold. Directed by Tron Anderson and produced by Siegel's music producer, Damon Dash, the movie is borne out of an appalling, but unsurprising, ignorance of what makes a life worth living. There is no hope, just a few fleeting moments of material wealth, booties and gun-toting power trips.
Rating: Summary: Hip hop film ought to be better than this Review: "State Property," a hip-hop variation of the "Scarface" tale, is so reprehensible it approaches a snuff eight-millimeter. Like a lot of rap music, which thinks the existence of wanton cruelty, violence and pain automatically legitimizes a song drawing out its every crass detail, the movie is a cheerfully amoral romp through all the horrible, totalitarian things one bully can do to a weaker person - humiliation, dehumanization, torture, murder - with a turn of the tables at the end that supposed to comment on this romp as if it was all very, very bad. Sure. Ask the film's admirers - or even the participants, including indicted star Beanie Siegel - where they stand on the use of force to snuff out anything - enemies, annoyances, acquaintances, even friends - that interfere with their designs of all-consuming power. Dictators rise on such thoughts. Siegel plays a local criminal who, after a thug epiphany of sorts at a topless bar, wipes out legions of drug dealers in an effort to carve out turf. There are stockpiles of men willing to do his bidding while he watches on in his neon-colored swish-swish outfit, pawing at a fence like some caged animal -yes, I'm not kidding, Siegel paws - as a mass execution goes down on a basketball court. To show he is some kind of leader, Siegel occasionally spits out obvious truisms; to show he has a trace of humanity, the movie trots a girlfriend and child across the screen, the idea being if you have them, you must be something less than a total bogeyman, although such accoutrements didn't excuse Stalin, or Saddam. Because "State Property" cannot possibly condone this behavior for an entire movie, Siegel eventually matches up against an equal armed foe and the fate that's predetermined for a straight-away lunatic like him. Unlike Hype Williams' "Belly," which very much wanted to have a message but buried it under the pyrotechnics of cars, girls and jewelry needed to pull young black audiences into the theaters, "State Property" has no aspirations beyond being hard and cold. Directed by Tron Anderson and produced by Siegel's music producer, Damon Dash, the movie is borne out of an appalling, but unsurprising, ignorance of what makes a life worth living. There is no hope, just a few fleeting moments of material wealth, booties and gun-toting power trips.
Rating: Summary: Stereotypes Appalling Review: 8/15/03 Saw this video from the middle..someone had not rewound it..although the parts I did see summarized the video quite well...with a showing of tall buildings,of parts of Philadelphia -although that type of "ghetto fabulous" scenario is not atypical in either the "Pat's Steak part of Philadelphia"(e.g. South Philly) or the Quaker part of Philadelphia(e.g. Center City) or the large number of organized religion communities of Philadelphia and of course not in its "Kimmel Center,Urban League,Major Mall(the Gallery) sections(Downtown Phillly)..The idea that they could have a shoot out at the end in a Philadelphia court room is truly not a believable plot(nor that the woman who shot the main character in the back could have had access to travel in the court just because she was a female not a male)(The Philadelphia courts were in City Hall,but have moved near its "main library(Free Library of Philadelphia) in Logan Square.
Rating: Summary: State Property Review: First of all I find fault with the opening credits where it states that this movie is inspired by actual events. Whatever, this movie is inspired by the unimaginative imaginations of a few guys who watched Scarface one two many times and decided they wanted to live out their fantasies through film. The writing is horrible. The acting is horrible. Beanie Sigel and the other characters in his little mob are underdeveloped to the point where they all seam to be the same person. Beanie Sigel, as the main character, has absolutely no motivation for going on a murderous rampage in order to build his drug empire other than the fact that he was bored one day at a strip club. Nothing happens in this movie that makes it stand out from the others in this genre. It's exactly the same story only the names of the characters have changed. Young thug sells drugs, young thug wants more money, young thug kills many to get money, young thug expands territory gets power. You know the rest. Don't waste your time with this one. And if you're one of the idiots who actually thought this was a good movie you need to think about exposing yourself to better films so you'll know the difference between good and bad.
Rating: Summary: Roc a FeLLa Hits us even harder with this... Review: I gave this movie a 5 star rating because those are my mans and them. Hova..Siegel..Bleek..Young gunz..dash's..da whole Roc A Fella movement im feeling it!.keep up the good work dawgs..Hola at me..Everyone look out for cameron's new cd and movie hitten us very soon!
Rating: Summary: Raw and Real! Review: I missed this flick in theatres,but the DVD is worth the wait. Better than average flick.It has alot of real situations to it.Not some fictional drama.If you the real deal,check out Big Pun Still Not A Player.It's the rawest that hip hop has ever offered.I watched both these flicks the same nite.
Rating: Summary: GARBAGE Review: I seen this and it was horrible. None of them cats can act if their life depended on it. Beans is 100% garbage. I would have expected the story line to be at least better than these amateur, fake actors, but I never get what I want do I? The earlier Black movies in the early 90's were classic. Belly wasn't classic but it was good...this is GARBAGE. I think Beans should stick to rapping cuz at least he's decent. The rest of those fools should work at MacDonald's or something
Rating: Summary: State property review Review: I think that this movie was really good. It had all of the things a movie should have. It had guns, drugs, and lots and lots of money. Plus has all the members of the rocafella team in it.On a scale from on to ten i give this movie a ten. It's the best movie and you got to go see it.
Rating: Summary: State property review Review: I think that this movie was really good. It had all of the things a movie should have. It had guns, drugs, and lots and lots of money. Plus has all the members of the rocafella team in it.On a scale from on to ten i give this movie a ten. It's the best movie and you got to go see it.
Rating: Summary: WHAT??!! Review: Is everybody smoking junk? 5 STARS? This movie was an embarassment to the African-American race. The actors(rappers)in this movie have such a stronghold on today's youth...if your gonna make a movie, why not make a movie about something positive? You could argue that the end of the movie made a statement in that Beans glory was shortlived and there is no future in that life, was that the message? Why make a movie that has been made so many times already? This story has been told 100 times over. Lets do something different and make a movie with substance that we can be proud of..as a young African-American male, I was truly embarassed watching this movie. Is this all we are capable of? One day I hope we wake up and understand... NOW...for the review This was a travesty...I gave it one star because i could not let me submit this with none. The acting was terrible to say the least. I give them credit for trying...but what this seemed like to me was a prosperous record label, that had more money than it knew what to do with, trying to venture into filmaking....just because they could.
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