HOODLUM (1997) A film review by Nick Schaden Copyright 1997 Nick Schaden
At one moment in "Hoodlum" Laurence Fishburne holds a switchblade to a gangster's throat. About to finish him off, Fishburne pauses. A tear rolls from his face. Whether you think Fishburne's emotions are appropriate or not, you can see that Fishburne is trying - trying with all his might to captivate the audience. This intensity that "Hoodlum" pushes throughout makes for a high quality and sometimes stunning movie.
"Hoodlum" is set in the 1930s during the era of the Great Depression. For much of the impoverished, working for and betting on an underground lottery, nicknamed "numbers" is the only way to bring food to the table. Mobster Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth) had decided to increase his numbers boundary to Harlem, which would throw many blacks out of jobs into the streets. The main force which runs numbers in Harlem is determined to stop Schultz's plight. Bumpy Johnson (Laurence Fishburne), a leader of the Harlem force, decides to take Schultz head on - which results in betrayal, deals, and war between the mobsters and the Harlem force.
We've seen this kind of plot before ("The Untouchables") and none of the audience is surprised when plenty of bloodshed results. Instead what makes the movie so good is the intensity, the effort shown by the actors and screenplay to make the movie work. Shoot-outs are shot with strong visual intensity and little or no music, illustrating the horrors of war between the mobsters and Harlem. The emotional scenes have good cinematography and many times booming music for the viewer to really feel the characters' emotions. To boot, the movie doesn't try for too many subplots and thus keeps the movie simple yet clear to the viewer. Finally, Laurence Fishburne's acting is superb, I loved many of the small emotional touches he imprints in "Hoodlum".
The movie still falls short in a few areas. Tim Roth, a great actor of our time, at certain points can get old spewing "f" words as though he's reenacting that famous coffee shop scene from Pulp Fiction again and again. While Vanessa Williams acts much better in this movie than in the dreadful Eraser, at times of extreme emotion she stumbles. Finally, the movie seemed a bit too long - I enjoyed the movie but certain scenes seemed to continue longer than necessary.
While "Hoodlum" can't measure near the greatness of Martin Scorcese's mobster movies ("Casino", "Goodfellas") it's still a strong film and was definitely worth my $5.50 admission.
Nick's rating: +3 (Recommended)
*** Movies rated from -4 (worst) to +4 (best), 0 = average movie ***
-- Nick Schaden Send your comments to: cpunut@uslink.net Check out all of Nick's reviews at: http://uslink.net/~cpunut/movies.html
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