From Amazon.com
Spike Lee's longtime cinematographer, Ernest R. Dickerson, made his directorial debut with this violent story about four Harlem teens whose lives are changed when a store robbery goes wrong. The film has been likened to an urban
The Wild Bunch, but it is far too artificial for that. With Dickerson's eye,
Juice understandably looks great, but at the end of the day it is only a slightly better version of the heavily clichéd crime movies that have artificially dominated perceptions of black cinema in the U.S. in the '90s. Rap fans might enjoy seeing some familiar stars on board, including Queen Latifah and Tupac Shakur.
--Tom Keogh
Review
The directorial debut of Spike Lee's cinematographer Ernest Dickerson is as good-looking as one would expect, but remains a routine tale of the grim lot of impoverished African-American youth. Unhappy with the level of "juice" (respect) he gets on the mean streets he's forced to walk, Bishop Tupac Shakur persuades the three friends of his crew (Omar Epps, Kalil Kain, and Jermaine Hopkins) that they need to get a gun to commit a robbery. Although there's nothing terribly amiss with the film, there is also nothing here one hasn't seen many times before, and Dickerson's script fails to provide the characters or their situation with the kind of depth or insight that might take it to the next level. The film also lacks an overall sense of pace, and the individual scenes themselves have little rhythm. However, Shakur, who died of gunshot wounds a couple of years after the film's release, and Epps are convincing, and the dark palette of Dickerson's camerawork evokes the somberness of the fate enshrouding these young lives. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
