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Baby Boy

Baby Boy

List Price: $19.94
Your Price: $17.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It was a cool movie, but...
Review: It was too long and I really didn't enjoy it as much as I though I would.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Point Taken!
Review: I have to admit, that this movie was really "Straight in your face". There were so many scenes that I really felt. I thought that this movie was just going to be another hood movie but the reality of the plot really hit home. You don't have to be from the hood to feel this movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Yo, its Bad, G
Review: ...And not good "bad", just plain bad. Its like a 90 minute rap video, full of stereotypes and bad attitudes. I wish Hollywood would stop making this garbage: ignorant black people are not funny or cool, they're disgraceful examples of how white America promulgates the idea of black men as violent, shiftless, sex crazed monsters.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor acting and full of stero types
Review: This is a poor movie on all scales. The acting, plot, and characters were all weak.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Wasn't really impressed
Review: Although it got frustrating watching two characters who obviously love each other, not able to just love each other demonstrated good character developement, but it just wan't real enough for me. It seemed like in every scene there was a moral to be found which can get kind of annoying when you are force fed lessons supposed to be in the movie. The ending was too fairy-tale, not realistic at all 'cause you know Tyrese would have been sought after by Snoop's homies.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Its OK
Review: baby boy was an ok movie, not as good a Boyz but alright.
I like the way the movie begins with the quotation of Frances Cress Welsing. I think if more young blacks like myself gained more interest to learn about our rich past they would understand that acting thuged out and killin each other is foolish; we should be more concerned about the unification of our race than about gettin that chedda and the Bling Bling (its this type mentality that is keeping us from greatness like our ancesters)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This is just Horrible!
Review: Horrible is one of the words that comes to mind when I think of this movie. First of all John Singleton steriotyped the characters as being negative, careless, unreasonable, disrespectful, emotionally-weak, etc. etc. I also found that instead of revealing story elements etc., it was replaced with more sex scenes. Don't get me wrong sex is good but he put it into overdrive. And also why does the main character have to work at the car wash making minimum wage and live with his mother? This main character also has ( you guessed it) no car. Again stereotypical. Bootlegging women's clothes, stealing, shooting, killing, smoking, sex, violence, cursing in ALMOST EVERY SCENE. This is not how an average blacc person anywhere behaves. There are some that do but those characters don't make good movies because they are predictable. They obviously want a better life etc etc. If Singleton would have gave us some background or something of anything other than just filler scenes it would have been more effective.

It is obvious he made this movie just to make money. He put in some music stars Tyrese, and Snoop Dogg. Threw in some ol school classic names such as Ving Rhames and AJ Johnson, and a fine new hottie for men to drool over in Taraji Henson. While none are bad actors(Tyrese and Henson surprised me in that category), they all suffer from the script. A.J. Johnson plays a young mother on her own trying to have her own life while Tyrese is still at home trying to "protect her". Oh yeah the father is nowhere to be found and the last son she kicked out the house got shot and killed, which seemingly is what will happen to Tyrese. Her new boyfriend (as you have guessed) is an *drumrolls please* ex-con with no job. How surprising! Snoop plays an ex-con as well, fresh outta jail, wanting his girl back, and feuding with Tyrese. He ultimately gets shot, of course. I won,t go further into the story of this cliched, predictable, and stereotypical movie. You should be able to figure out what happens.

I will also say that some of the scenes are hardly believable such as Henson and Tyrese arguing outside in front of their neighbors house, each yelling and cursing at the top of their lungs. Or what about the scene in the park where Tyrese and Cuba Gooding Jr's brother (forgot his name) stick up some kids for twenty minutes without anybody seeing them? Gooding's role all together was hardly believable.

John Singleton let out a serious dud with this movie. It is horrendous. I would suggest that you never see it in your life. Singleton is capable of better, but I seriously doubt he can get worse than this. The ending is basically wack. It leaves you hanging, and you still dont know whats going on by the end of the movie. No one gets arrested for capping Snoop Dogg, and after this event, everything is all merry between Tyrese and Taraji; who previoulsy couldn't talk about a something as frivolous as a TV show. Ironically, we didn't get to see a single scene with them talking out there problems or smoething to that degree. What happens after he smacks her across the face? Do they just forget aobut it and not get help? This is also stereotypical. Why does he have to hit her? There is no purpose to that move except just taking up time and space. And at the end they just happen to wanna get married so sudden. Where are the scenes developing the story? This movie also drags on forever (2.5 hours) making me really despise this title. Had it been shorter I wouldn't have had to suffer so long, and thus it would've been a better movie.

Again this movie is terrible. It is a waste of time for you to see it. You may also wonder why I am bashing this title. It is because I hate wasting time that is just too precious and can be spent doing something productive. I also hate wasting money, so I'm writing to prevent you from wasting time & money. Overall the only good thing that saves this title is the acting. I will say that the acting is superb, but haunted by an unmoving, uninspired, and predictable script. It is good to laugh at but otherwise do not watch this movie for your own sake.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie
Review: The real star of this movie is Cuba Gooding Jnr's (unknown) brother who totally steals the show with a brilliant performance. Check it out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I liked it
Review: I just got to see this film this morning. First of all, Jody needed to grow up. He was just another brother out there making babies and not doing nothing with his life. Staying at home and not contributing nothing. Then his mother meets a man who is good to her. At first, you wonder(like Jody) what this man's intentions are, but as time goes by, you can see that the brother really cares about the mother. Yet, in the midst of this, Jody and his main lady go through a lot of issues with trust,love, and the whole gamut.I was ready for them to stop the drama. I saw myself in the rest of the characters. I don't think that essentially they are bad people, just ordinary people who feel they are doing what they feel is best.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Stereotypical and bleak depiction of Black Los Angelenos
Review: John Singleton's movie paints a bleak potrait on the state of black people in L.A. As a matter of fact, Singleton's movie does the biggest disservice to the communities of South Central Los Angeles. I graduated from Crenshaw High School Gifted Magnet (a school only a few footsteps away from where the movie Baby Boy was shot). I've been going to school for over 10 years in South Central and I have never once witnessed a drive-by shooting or seen someone get shot. When I visit my relatives they think they way Black Los Angelenos live is a life full of bloodshed and violence. No one in my family is a gangmember and I am not related to any gang members. I am a black male and I now attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Singleton's stereotypical depiction of Los Angeles Afro-Americans is biased, prejudiced and counterproductive.

Yes, I do see the need for freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but at what cost? The characters in the movie were not real life characters to me because I know no one in real life who would act like Jody or Yvette any of the other main characters. This movie depicts young black men in all of the common media stereotypes: lazy, implusive, violent, unfaithful, selfish, gang-involved, incarcerated, cheats, con-artists, hoodlums, rapists, womanizers, woman beaters, trigger-happy, etc. Black women are depicted as loud, attidunal, stupid, classless, thug-loving, and dependent. Of course, not all black people act like this. Since I am black, I see many more depictions of my own people on a daily basis as lawyers, doctors, professionals, pre-med majors, thoughtful mothers, beautiful loving fathers, etc. The thing that I find wrong with the film is that it offers no sort of growth. It's cyclical. All of the characters remain in their same tattered state. A man was shot...and suddenly it's happily ever after? A woman was beat...a suddenly it's lover's lane in the park? The ending of the film was ignorant and too utopian to be called "real-life" or a true depiction.

I was deeply offended that Singleton chose the route of stereotypist. Instead of trying to find different views and bring different viewpoints to the table. He uses the same, tired 'Hood formula that he rode to success with Boyz N The Hood. I am disappointed in the way Singleton showcases Black Los Angeles. Maybe because Singleton grew up in an environment full of dimwitted-women, animalistic men and gangs, doesn't mean that all of Black California is like that.

I can recall my freshman year of college last year. I was an out-of-state student in Michigan. I told them I was from Los Angeles. The reactions that they gave me were "whoa, you're from LA, have you ever been shot at?"..."LA must be really violent, how did you survive?" I've been asked these questions many times and it's startling. People outside of the community of South Central view it as a huge ghetto with gunfire being shot day in and day out. It's not the case. You have many different people in South Central just like any other community. And oh yeah, NOT EVERYONE IS GANG AFFLIATED. Sure gangs exist, but it's not to the point where we fear for our lives on an hour-to-hour basis, those are isolated incidents. Singleton, in his "bluntness" decides to throw dozens of normally isolated situations such as being attacked by a gang, drive-by shootings, etc. and act like it's normal livng. Well, it's not. I've never had aspirations of being a gang member and as a matter of fact I've never even talked to anyone in a gang. They were usually lowlifes that stuck to themselves and perished accordingly, unforunately. Also, why is it everytime Singleton does a movie on South Central there's the stereotypical drive-by sequence, that is so stupid. I've never had a drive-by on my street and none of my many friends who also live in South Central have never experienced a drive-by.

These are the many qualms I have about the film. I appreciate the great direction by Singleton, but as a writer, there were many loopholes in his script. The film itself went nowhere and was very cyclical. Many unnecessary vignettes. What was Snoop's purpose in the movie other than to add another "big name rapper for credibilty." It's so stupid. Singleton should be ashamed. He doesn't even live in South Central anymore. The community he talks about is one that was Pre-1992. Sure gangs and crime exist, but not to the extent Singleton glorifies. He doesn't offer any solutions to the problems of gangs or anything, he just sensationalizes the situation. He has done a major disservice to the community of South Central Los Angeles and it is a sad story. People who walk away from this film happy and not questioning themselves or the characters' actions afterwards are really lost and oblivious to misrepresentation of South Central's citizens. I could go on for a whole other essay talking about the loopholes of the script and the characters in a sociological and historical perspective, but that would be a book.


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