[SPOILERS]3.5/5? What are you people thinking? Style over substance. Everything in this movie feels so forced and contrived. Rick Moranis' character in particular. It feels like a parody of old gangster flicks, but it doesn't want to be treated as one. The lead sounds like he is trying to impersonate Stallone. When he knocked out his love interest (that she later makes a joke about...) I couldn't believe what I just witnessed. Was that his only option? He is also a wanker, so if he did get killed in the final fight with the villain I wouldn't have cared one bit. Walter Hill directed and wrote some great movies, but this isn't it. About 3/5th of the way through, it's fairly serious and then it has some ill-fitting jive type music as the main characters run from cops that adds to the disjointed tone. It tries to be cool and it doesn't pull it off.

This isn't very good. There are lots of generic beats and nothing much from the rappers stands out. Even legends like Nas and Eminem give below average performances. And good Lord, I hate the way Cam'ron raps. DJ Drama and others could've learnt a few things from Kay Slay though. At least you don't hear him shouting throughout the songs like a moron. Best Tracks: I Never Liked Ya Ass, The Champions, New Jack City, Angels Voice, Coast to Coast Gangstas

It's like they (the 35 reported screenwriters that worked on this film and others involved) thought the effort with the production design and some prop gags was enough so they didn't bother with a decent story. Siskel & Ebert's review of this was spot on. The story is kind of adult, but it lacks a crescendo, and isn't deep enough or interesting enough to be entertaining. And there are many aspects of the story that wouldn't be engaging for kids. It seems like they tried to tick both boxes, like the best family movies do, but they didn't succeed.

'WTF You Thought' has a wack hook and the final two tracks are below average for me but the rest are decent. I don't know how much replay value this has though. It depends on how much you just wanna here spittin' because the hooks are lacking. The production is also pretty similar for a number of these songs too. 'Rolling 110 Deep' is just 40 minutes straight of 110 artists rhyming for 8 bars each. As astonishing as that is, as hinted at by Slay at the end of the song, it was bettered in 2023 with 'Rolling 200 Deep' that lasts for 63 minutes. Best Tracks: Intro - 72 Bar Assassin, Extravagant Lifestyle, Rolling 110 Deep

This starts off slowly. The opener sounds very mid '00s. 'Screwed Up' is a bore with an average Lil Wayne verse. 'Against All Odds' is the first good song that features more likeable production and a 2pac verse from Big L's 'Deadly Combination' and it gets better from there. Best Tracks: Against All Odds, Life Goes On, Smile, Give My Last Breath (Interlude), Give My Last Breath