Juice ***½ (1992, Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine Hopkins, Khalil Kain, Samuel L Jackson, Queen Latifah) – Classic Movie Review 10,155

Co-writer/ director Ernest R Dickerson, who frequently worked as a cinematographer on many of Spike Lee’s early movies, puts on a director’s cap for the first time for the tough-edged 1992 rights-of-passage action crime drama Juice, telling the tale about four inner-city teenagers setting out to prove that they have got the ‘juice’ (that is motivation and guts) to survive on the mean streets of Harlem.

The four friends – Q (Omar Epps), Bishop (Tupac Shakur), Raheem (Khalil Kain) and Steel (Jermaine Hopkins) – decide to rob a convenience store to prove themselves. But their actions end in violence, and one gang member cracks and enters a downward spiraling world of danger and death.

The story is very simple, but the performances give it a depth the screenplay rarely deserves, and Dickerson eschews the expected camera virtuosity to present this as a starkly filmed parable about the dangers of violence.

The pumping soundtrack features Eric B and Rakim, Salt ‘N’ Pepa, Naughty by Nature and the score comes from Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad.

Juice features plenty of juice, but it is low on the hard-core substance.

The story is by Ernest R Dickerson, and the screenplay is by Ernest R Dickerson and Gerard Brown.

Also in the cast are Cindy Herron, Vincent Laresca, Samuel L Jackson, George Gore II, Grace Garland and Bruklin Harris.

Dickerson met Spike Lee while they were attending New York University’s Film School. As director, Dickerson is known for Juice (1992), Surviving the Game, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), Bulletproof, Blind Faith, Ambushed, Bones (2001) and Never Die Alone (2004). He has also directed many TV series episodes.

Dickerson recalled: ‘I first worked with Tupac on my first film, but that was before he was really known.’

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,155

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