Belly

I find this movie great because I like the performances of Nas, DMX, Taral Hicks, Method Man, Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and I like how Hype Williams directed this film, it's so urban-like and realistic as possible. I watched this film thinking I feel sorry for these guys in the film that it makes you want to understand about the difficult times they have been through. I never took hip-hop and realistic urban views seriously until I watched this film, now I understand why it's a struggle on the streets instead of urban fairy tales for profit.

First off this is one of those movie where you either hate it or love it. I loved the movie. I found it to be one of the better urban movies to come out in the 90's not better then boyz n da hood or menace II society. But It was the best one that centered around life in New York's crime underworld. I also think it's DMX's best movie so far. The movie is stylishly filmed by Director Hype WIlliams and the characters are extremely realistic. The dialog is also realistic. The movie might fall short when it comes to how the plot is set up and the overall development of the characters. That is not to say that the movie doesn't have an overall significant meaning because it does. It addresses some of the problems that face inner city youth today. Most people that don't like this movie fail to realize this fact. The minister character in the movie is not important but rather what he is saying is. With that said I feel that the movie takes bold steps to show how certain ways of life are wrong and why they should be changed. The movie is also not your typical crime/drug movie however it does have some of those moments that could have been rethought to be a bit more interesting. With all that said I recommend the movie to be at least watched once because if nothing else the movie does have a great soundtrack and decent plot.

Many will say that this film is "Too much like a music video" and in many regards it is. However this movie has many strong points, mainly it's beautiful visuals, the heart-pumping soundtrack, and it's overall lasting power. Visually this movie is amazing, the deep colors and reflective surfaces give it a fairy tale appearance. Although this style has been done since (i.e;Traffic), in Belly it works well. This visual presentation does not carry the whole movie though. The story line is decent (Think Scarface, or Blow) it is nothing that has not been done before. Although with belly you don't have any remorse for the main character as you do with tony montanya. This film is great on a big plasma TV with surround sound. on a tiny TV with built in speakers...it is lame.

This movie isn't horrible. It's a whole lot of style and not enough substance, but that's the problem with most of director Hype Williams' music videos, so I decided to finally catch "Belly," to find out if the guy was actually any good at telling a story or not. Most of his music videos look the same, you see, with absolutely no content whatsoever. Then I saw the way he took the time to tell an actual story, with his images in No Doubt's "Ex-Girlfriend," and I realized the man actually had talent, and not just a fisheye lens. I don't think much of Williams as a writer. But I will compare this film favorably to another movie that's not very good, "Nomads," written and directed in 1986 by John McTiernan. There's another filmmaker who can't write, but made incredible, beautifully directed films, from the popcorn ("Predator") to the dramatic ("The Hunt for Red October"), to both at the same time ("Die Hard.") The acid test of any music video director is, can they direct actors? Is their visual flair all they've got (Kevin Bray, Jake Scott), or do they bring actual theatrical talent to the table (F. Gary Gray, Spike Jonze)? "Belly" is inconclusive, as the editing and camera covers up everyone's performance so that both the bad and good actors appear to give equal performances. The intrusive "blah blah blah" voiceover, which reminded me of a Terrence Malick film, didn't help either. Hopefully Williams will take another crack at it, and leave the writing to the professionals. This one lacked character, subtlety, or any emotion other than anger and hate, except for the final 2 minutes, and by then I didn't care anymore. These are all writing problems, but then, the scenes that he didn't leave out for no reason are actually quite fascinating, in a morbid sort of way. Of course, ten years later, McTiernan's career suffers, and no matter what anyone tells you, so does Spike Lee's. Whatever Hype's spent the last 4 years doing, I hope he gets a good script soon. The potential is staggering. But this film isn't. 6/10. (nice sets)

"Belly", the film, has been rated poorly by the critics, and for a simple reason - the critics are mostly White. Whites do not share the culture of the film's characters, and will probably just write this film off for it's exploitative elements. However, if you are Black, this film will probably be rated much better than the "White" critic's ratings. Take the OJ Simpson verdict of, "not guilty", the White Audience's response was that of a funeral - silence, moans, and shock. On the other side, the Black Audience's reaction was just the opposite - cheers, and jumping with joy. Film and Art is very subjective, and is not like math, where if you are right, you can be proved right, but in Art, there is no such proof. Also, there is something I think that many would not agree with me, is that when White people see a movie that is not made by a White Person, they have subconscious prejudices that are transferred to the film, and in some cases may rate a film poorly, just because they feel a Black Person can NOT make a movie better than a White Person. "Belly" is a "great film", and there should be more Black Film Critics.

If you're giving this movie great reviews, be honest with yourselves - you probably wanted to see your favorite hip-hop stars and favorite hip-hop director do a movie. The performances were not stellar; they were not even noteworthy. The saddest part about the cast is that you liked them before you saw the movie. You probably wanted the movie to be good so badly that you convinced yourselves that the "actors" were doing anything more than just reading their lines. I would give the plot 4 out of 10. Not only is the basis of the plot unoriginal, but it also reinforces the (incorrect) idea that us blacks will sell drugs and commit crimes until the Nation of Islam comes along to rescue us from ourselves. Even sadder is the fact that the real actors in this film could not shine because they had such poor co-stars. I've been reading through the crap that you folks are trying to support the film with, but this was a self-serving film for the main starts and directors- more concerned with making a hip-hop movie (by the way "hip-hop" is NOT a legitimate film genre), full of big names in music, than creating a solid motion picture. It fulfilled a "superstar" prerequisite by giving everyone involved at least one film credit, and sadly convinced DMX that he should keep "acting." So, you've got a cast that's short on acting abilities, a director that could care less, and a target demographic that will try to convince themselves that their heroes were great in the film, just because they like their music. This was a win for the filmmakers because their money would be made by music fans, not film fans, and you have proved my point with your overly positive reviews. Rather than see the film for what it is, you are digging deep, trying to find a way for this debacle to somehow serve a purpose. Give it a rest. Just ask yourself, if the acting was of the same caliber, but without the famous names, where would this film have ended up? The answer: it would never have been seen.

Despite any other negative reviews I truly enjoy this movie! The plot line parallels Scarface very closely but is done in such a different way that the movie has a feel of its own. The acting is excellent, and not just for rappers. All the performances in the movie can hold their own without any pretext. The plot in fast paced and intricate with twists, turns, ups and downs. The language is graphic but not unrealistic for the type of characters portraited. All in all this movie is entertaining from start to finish and all of my friends that have watched it with me have enjoyed it (even those that don't like rap at all). 8 out of 10