Blue Hill Avenue
Cahoots Prods./Artisan Entertainment
The milieu of "Blue Hill Avenue" is poverty and crime, but the story has little resonance or depth. The R-rated movie comes off as exploitative and derivative. After sitting on the shelf for two years, the 128-minute Artisan release has dismal boxoffice prospects. Its best hope is another long shelf life on DVD.
Tristan (Allen Payne) is a supremely self-confident gang leader in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. While he is from a respectable middle-class family, we watch as this 14-year-old gets drawn to dealing drugs and relishing violence in an unwavering thirst for power. Unfortunately, writer-director Craig Ross Jr.'s film is so long on melodrama and short on subtlety that it never plays as seriously as intended.
Tristan's upstart gang consists solely of three best friends: the playboy "Money" (Aaron D. Spears), hothead "E-Bone" (William Johnson) and heavyweight muscle Simon (Michael "Bear" Taliferro). Their nemesis is Benny (Clarence Williams III), a longtime mob boss who rules drug, prostitution and extortion rackets. Two vice detectives (William Forsythe, Andrew Divoff) are on the tail of both gangs.
The film opens in 1991 on the verge of a drug deal showdown, after which we flash back to 1979 for a lengthy sequence of the gang (still below driving age) slowly building a drug-money empire and beginning their reign of terror. Returning to 1991, the four -- now young adults -- live the good life, but it is a day-to-day existence. Tristan has wed his devoted high school sweetheart (Angelle Brooks), but they are, predictably, increasingly at odds over his career choice. Eventually, the police make headway against all this corruption, and the members of the once tight-knit cadre start to wonder who among them can be trusted.
Payne ("Jason's Lyric") tries his best in a role written with a heavy hand. He manages to convey the steely resolve of a natural leader but cannot make this gangster saga seem realistic. Williams works his charisma a little too hard in an attempt to be scary-cool.
The milieu of "Blue Hill Avenue" is poverty and crime, but the story has little resonance or depth. The R-rated movie comes off as exploitative and derivative. After sitting on the shelf for two years, the 128-minute Artisan release has dismal boxoffice prospects. Its best hope is another long shelf life on DVD.
Tristan (Allen Payne) is a supremely self-confident gang leader in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. While he is from a respectable middle-class family, we watch as this 14-year-old gets drawn to dealing drugs and relishing violence in an unwavering thirst for power. Unfortunately, writer-director Craig Ross Jr.'s film is so long on melodrama and short on subtlety that it never plays as seriously as intended.
Tristan's upstart gang consists solely of three best friends: the playboy "Money" (Aaron D. Spears), hothead "E-Bone" (William Johnson) and heavyweight muscle Simon (Michael "Bear" Taliferro). Their nemesis is Benny (Clarence Williams III), a longtime mob boss who rules drug, prostitution and extortion rackets. Two vice detectives (William Forsythe, Andrew Divoff) are on the tail of both gangs.
The film opens in 1991 on the verge of a drug deal showdown, after which we flash back to 1979 for a lengthy sequence of the gang (still below driving age) slowly building a drug-money empire and beginning their reign of terror. Returning to 1991, the four -- now young adults -- live the good life, but it is a day-to-day existence. Tristan has wed his devoted high school sweetheart (Angelle Brooks), but they are, predictably, increasingly at odds over his career choice. Eventually, the police make headway against all this corruption, and the members of the once tight-knit cadre start to wonder who among them can be trusted.
Payne ("Jason's Lyric") tries his best in a role written with a heavy hand. He manages to convey the steely resolve of a natural leader but cannot make this gangster saga seem realistic. Williams works his charisma a little too hard in an attempt to be scary-cool.
- 9/18/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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