Monday, January 11, 2016

Set It Off (1996)

Director:  F. Gary Gray

Writers: Takashi Bufford, Kate Lanier

Composer: Christopher Young

Starring: Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise, John C. McGinley, Blair Underwood, Vincent Baum, Van Baum, Chaz Lamar Shepherd, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Charles Robinson, Ella Joyce, Dr. Dre

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Deal with this. The only breaks you get are the ones you take.

Plot: Desperation drives four inner-city women (Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise) to bank robbery in Los Angeles, then they start mistrusting one another.

My rating: 6.5/10



Will I watch it again?  No.

If this were made in 1975 it would have been a lot more fun.  A LOT more fun.  As it stands now, it's still a pretty good movie.  The performances are earnest and the story is good but there's a lot more drama than the trailer lets on and there's less action than there should be to make this more in line with what they were trying to sell us.  There are some fun moments but the best thing about it is the ending...sort of. Even though it's a bit overdone emotionally, the ending is bleak except for the character(s) that gets away.   I would have preferred going all the way with the hand of doom and let them all snuff it but at least they didn't make the finale a happy dance.  That would've been way worse.  The NewLine DVD has a nice anamorphic widescreen print with the only extras being a music video by Ray J and the trailer (in anamorphic widescreen).  It's by no means great film but it deserves better than that considering the talent in front of and behind the camera. Now somebody needs to go back in time and pre-make this film starring Pam Grier, Tamara Dobson, Vonetta McGee, Carol Speed and William Smith as the detective.  Here's my money.

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