Dead Presidents (1995) User Reviews

Brothers In Arms.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 30 May 2015]

Albert and Allen Hughes direct, produce and co-write (with Michael Henry Brown) this tale about Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate), a South Bronx boy who goes off to fight in Vietnam, to then return after his tours of duty to find things just aren't the same anymore. The follow up to their incendiary debut, Menace II Society, the Hughes brothers deliver another in your face picture that is quite frankly on a perpetual downer. This is no bad thing, though, as long as you are not looking to be cheered up.

That's Uncle Sam for you! Mean Green.

The pic very much harks back to the glory days of film noir in the 40s and 50s, where some talented film makers began to tell stories of returning war veterans finding what they left behind is now alien to them - with some characters, as is the case here - deeply scarred by their experiences. Add in some gangster elements and the coup de grâce that is the scintillating heist, and clearly the brothers have seen many an old classic film. That the narrative is tried and tested stops the piece hitting greater heights, this in spite of some super acting (especially Tate and the always value for money Keith David) and the hard hitting violence that pierces the senses. Predictable yet potent, and certainly memorable, it's well worth a look for the tough of mind and the classic era film of heart. 7/10

great (esp.Tucker)

[d3ei · 7/10 · 20 February 2002]

Chris Tucker is hilarious in this movie, he has great on screen charisma, and he speaks his lines very fluidly, as if he was improvising. Larenz Tate is great as well, being able to pull off the young version of his character, since he has a boyish face. And Bokeem Woodbine reminds me of Samuel L. Jackson in this movie. The cinematography is also great and so is the acting overall. Like everyone says, its not so much as a heist movie, but a reflection on the hardships of the black individual, such as finding work and drug abuse; after fighting a war that wasnt really meant for them or their country.

An abridged, urbanized version of "The Deer Hunter"

[isitwewin5 · 6/10 · 26 January 2003]

The Hughes Brothers tried to play up the same angle with "Dead Presidents" as Micheal Cimino and Louis Garfinkle did with "The Deer Hunter" by portraying the social effects that the Vietnam war had on its young veterans. And for a while, it seemed as though they were quite successful. But in the end, it became apparent why "The Dead Presidents" fell short of the Academy recognition that "The Deer Hunter" won.

Set in the late 60s and early 70s, the plotline of "Dead Presidents" follows a promising and popular inner-city high school graduate, Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate), who decides to forego college and enter the Vietnam War as a member of the Marine Corps. Anthony survives a graphic and arduous three-plus-year stint in the jungle, but upon his homecoming, he realizes that the "real world" can be just as trying as war. His low-paying job provides little support for his new family and he becomes desperate to make ends meet. He enlists the help of some old friends and plans a daring armored car heist which, if successful, could serve to amend his past and brighten his future...

The first seventy-five minutes of this movie were really well done. Character traits and relationships were well-established and the mood was properly set as suspense built for the anticipated war scenes--a perfect "epic-caliber" introduction.

But instead of continuing with a detailed flow, the directing crew tried to cram about ninety minutes worth of material into the final forty-five minutes, and consequently did not leave themselves enough time to totally develop any strong climactic progression or aptly characterize any of the cast members into their sudden postwar "criminal complex." Thus, the "heist scene," which based on advertising was probably supposed to be one of the more memorable and authoritative parts of the film, seemed to be almost too "spur-of-the-moment" and lacked motivation and definition.

All in all, the film's running time, which was approximately 119 minutes, was simply far too short for the storyline. The postwar segment of the film (the last forty-five minutes) was indeed key in separating a decent movie like "Dead Presidents" from a epic masterpiece like "The Deer Hunter."

Besides the first seventy-five minutes, a couple of notably good performances given by Chris Tucker as Skip (Anthony's best friend) and Rose Jackson as Juanita (Anthony's girlfriend) do make "Dead Presidents" a movie worth seeing at least once. That said, I would warn not to create a preconception based on the title, tagline or any publicity images that you might have seen, because they apply only to a small portion of the action.

delivers big for the right fans

[Special-K88 · 14 September 2002]

Gripping, poignant story about a young black man growing up in the 1960s Bronx whose parents groom him to follow in the footsteps of his college grad older brother. He has his own plans however, and enlists in the Marine Corps where he survives four years of brutal warfare in Vietnam. He returns home to try and make a new life for himself, but a struggling economy and lack of formal education gradually draw him into a life of crime. An effective portrayal of black involvement in Vietnam, with good performances, powerful scenes, and shockingly graphic violence. Tate is commanding in the lead, and Tucker a real surprise as his drug-addicted pal. Not for all tastes, but well-crafted and well-made. ***

Never clear cut in its genre but definitely clear cut in its study, Dead Presidents is an interesting and tragic tale of desperation following Vietnam.

[johnnyboyz · 7/10 · 17 November 2008]

Dead Presidents hammers home its point in its final scene, a quite brilliant and excruciating in its execution scene in the sense we may want these characters to get away with what they're doing. The scene is a heist, created between a handful of people who have come to know each other through the years and we have come to understand their predicaments. The finale sums up the sad, sad desperation some of the characters have had to resort to given their life and what has happened to them and captures how hard the times get when they get hard in the first place.

Dead Presidents is a crime drama; a social commentary and a war film all wrapped up in one. But this genre hybridity does not work against the film as much as it does compliment the epic feeling that we get when we recognise these characters have covered quite a fair distance. The film is Boyz in the Hood; Taxi Driver; Platoon and finishes it all off with a shoot out alá shortly after the robbery in Michael Mann's 1995 film 'Heat'. The finale stands out due to its jarring slow motion and attention to detail in how they have to go about their plan in brutal, violent, realistic detail – each person is positioned and attacks a victim with a certain weapon in a certain way and focuses on a certain part of the victim. The shootout stands out due to its inclusion in what has been, so far, a film that avoids massive shoot outs and lashings of violence in a steady and careful study of an African-America man in a crisis.

The study behind Dead Presidents is intriguing and it's a study of maturity and coming to terms with responsibility. The film has its characters eventually resort to particularly desperate measures in order to merely live but does a good job in not glamorising these means. The primary focus here is the character of Anthony Curtis (Tate), a young African-American in the late sixties hanging around with his other young friends Jose (Rodríguez) and Skip (Tucker) all of whom are about to finish their education and hopefully enter some sort of employment. The setting up of the film is unspectacular but deliberately so; the kids hang out, get high and attend parties. But it is two things that click lead Anthony into his coming of age tale; they are the impregnation of Juanita (Jackson) and the volunteering to go to Vietnam to fight the cause for America in the war.

These two events will shape the character upon his arrival back to The States and it's through the pathetic, immature activities that occur at the very beginning that we will get a feel for how far Anthony has come along as a human being when the going really gets tough later on before, as I said, desperation kicks in. These tough times revolve around balancing a family that he has created as well as dealing with his Vietnam experiences in which he witnessed all the atrocities you'd associate with the war.

The film's opening third is teasing just as it is entertaining. It threatens to head down a route of crime complete with African-American gangsters hanging out in pool halls, taking rides with one another and getting into scraps; be it with one another over a hustle or Kirby (David), perhaps the fiercest criminal of this opening third, battering someone of a third party nature with his prosthetic leg because they owe him money. But the film never becomes stonewall in its genre and doesn't resort to clichés. It presents Anthony with a series of choices at a delicate time in his life but they are little choices such as 'Does he take the potentially ominous ride with Kirby into the unknown?' as Kirby goes to settle a score and how does he react to first seeing a gun and the potential danger that could spawn.

These are choices and scenarios that will prepare Anthony for larger, more important decisions. The scenes and scenarios are nothing we haven't seen before in the respective genre but they're still required for Anthony's maturing process. Once in the military, the film again threatens to break into genre and Anthony is faced once again with choices to do with whether he excepts the Euthanasia plea from a dying soldier – guns and death and general darkness remain in his life and are the subject of a lot of his life experiences. But it's when Anthony returns to New York that a study kicks in. As a character, he has matured through experience and cannot seem to get on with his girlfriend Juanita who's now a mother after his tours of duty. The film feeds off Vietnam as a war which disables its lone individual from re-fitting into society in the snug, immature manner in which he could prior to the event.

Dead Presidents contains a fair number of good scenes and its reference to Taxi Driver as a study of America more observant and concerned with what's going on in a small, Asian country many miles away when home and its own people are in an equally nasty mess (New York, yet again) is interesting. Anthony's struggles with employment and family life as well as the pimp that helps out with money and just wants to be friends acts as a highlight that he cannot even get re-acquainted all too easily, no matter how criminally minded the person is and no matter how much they might have had in common had they met prior one of them going off and fighting for one's country.

Tries to do too much

[wahoodoss-1 · 6/10 · 5 July 2004]

Dead Presidents is an okay movie. Not bad, not great. Okay. I give it a B-.

I give Dead Presidents high marks for casting and acting. Larenz Tate, Chris Tucker, and the rest did a fabulous job. I also like the war scenes--very gripping, very scary.

The problem that I have with the movie is that it spans too many genres and as a result, just seems to drag on and on. The tag line would make you believe that this is a cops and robbers film centered around a major heist. But that is terribly misleading. The heist doesn't happen and isn't even an issue until late in the film. Up to that point you could consider this a life in the ghetto movie, trying to escape the ghetto movie, a Viet Nam war movie, a what life was like for blacks in the late 60's early 70's movie, a what the Viet Nam war did to those who survived it movie, so on and so on. By the time it came around for the big robbery, I was wondering when this movie would end. This problem of too grand a scope keeps the movie from getting an A.

Pretty good show but i didn't like the ending

[Hang_All_Drunkdrivers · 7/10 · 2 October 2005]

Larenz Tate does a great job in this movie about young blacks in the 60s and 70s. He spends a few years in Vietnam and then comes home to a dead-end life and takes part in an armed robbery that sends him to prison at the end. That's the part i didn't like. In the courtroom he goes berzerk when the judge gives him 15 to life but hell - several people were killed in the robbery including a cop! I thought he'd be executed and was surprised at the light sentence and dumbfounded when his character objected to the severity.

Tate does a great job in the lead role. First time i saw this guy and i'm surprised he never became a bigger star. Very likable screen persona. David Keith is sensational as Kirby, the one-legged and tough as nails goodguy/badguy. Chris Tucker plays his usual character of a loud mouth who thinks he knows everything and is fine too.

Great movie

[Johnny0581 · 9/10 · 8 March 2005]

I really enjoyed this movie. Everyone in it did an excellent job and it was very gripping. It keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Larenz Tate, in his best role ever, plays Anthony Curtis, a young black man from late 1960's The Bronx, who is just a regular guy who hangs out with his friends played by Chris Tucker also in his best role ever as Skip, and Freddy Rodriguez as Jose. Shortly after graduation from high school, Anthony decides he doesn't want to follow his big brother's path of going to college but instead, joining the Marine Corps and fight for his country. Shortly thereafter, we are taken to Vietnam with the boys and we meet some other interesting characters, one of them a psychotic preacher, Cleon, played by Bokeem Woodbine,and the Vietnam sequences are executed very realistically and are very bloody. After a while, we are taken back to the boogie down Bronx, where Anthony upon returning to the old neighborhood after four years,realizes that things are even worse than before, and everyone, including his pre-Vietnam girlfriend, Juanita, all have taken their lives in a different direction. Anthony is now a father, and cannot find a job anywhere and realizes that his own country has turned his back on him and many young black veterans from 'Nam, including his old boys Skip and Jose. We also meet Kirby, played by Keith David, a once cold and ruthless hustler, who has now left the life because the corruption of the city has forced him to quit his old habits, and Juanita's sister Delilah, played by N'Bushe Wright, who is an activist with the Black Panthers. Pretty soon all of these characters, save Juanita, fed up with their lives and their situation, get together to plan a stickup on an armored truck that is making a pickup of old dollar bills and is taking them to a location in Washington to burn them. The stickup sequence is very well made, but of course, bloody. This movie is filled with great performances, the best coming from Larenz Tate, Bokeem Woodbine and Keith David, heart-pounding action and good dialogue. A Hughes Brothers' classic. 9.5 out of 10.

A flawed yet great movie.

[HOPSQUIAT · 7/10 · 26 November 2020]

This is a powerful movie. Its about Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate) and his journey from wide eyed teenager/Marine recruit to a broken down, battered, broke and struggling black man during the 60s-70s. He's been abandoned by the country that he loves but doesn't really love him. He has to resort to a scatterbrained bank robbery with his friends just to make it.

POSTIVES Larenz Tate and the whole cast is amazing. It is star studded with black movie royalty. Keith David, N'Bushe Wright, Chris Tucker, Terrance Howard mane, Bookeem Woodbine and many many more. Larenz Tate carries the movie though. He is a very underrated actor. He can turn the switch on from happy to angry in a split second. The subject matter is also excellent with the backdrop of the Vietnam War and how black and brown soldiers were treated once they returned home. It often gets overlooked in Hollywood movies.

NEGATIVES The first half is amazing, the climax/ending is kind of rushed. Also the Vietnam section goes on a little too long. I appreciate the ambition though. It just feels like a completely different movie. They go from planning a bank robbery to just doing it. Nobody questions it, and it just happens. N'Bushe Wright's character should have been in the movie more. The Vietnam scene while effective, is a little bit too overly violent, not saying that War isn't hell, but it gets to the point of being overly grewsome.

Overall, I still like the movie. Its is entertaining from beginning to the end. It has problems but boy is it ambitious.

Great Movie

[gator1110 · 10/10 · 9 May 2004]

This was a great movie, and I think it was overlooked. It is one my favorites due to the unique storytelling and action. This movie is way better than 90% of the crap that comes out today. The acting is also superb, and I think it Chris Tucker's greatest performance. Even though the story has a lot of action, it's very believable, which is hard to do in Hollywood. For those who haven't seen this movie I suggest you go and rent it now, it's a modern day classic. Sit back and be prepared to watch a great moment in filmaking. It's definitely underrated. I think if it was promoted better it might have done better, especially since most war movies do well.

overly ambitious

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 12 May 2015]

It's 1968 north east Bronx. Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate) comes from a middle class family but follows one-legged criminal mentor Kirby (Keith David). After graduation, Curtis enlists in the Marines. His friend Skip (Chris Tucker) vows to avoid the war by going to college. Skip flunks out and joins Curtis' squad. Their other friend Jose (Freddy Rodriguez) is drafted into the Army. After four harrowing years of war, Curtis tries to adjust to civilian life. He discovers his old girlfriend Juanita had their baby. With a growing family and the lost of his job, he reunites with his troubled Vietnam vet friends, Kirby and Juanita's revolutionary sister Delilah in a scheme to rob an armor truck.

After the impressive debut of 'Menace II Society', the Hughes brothers may have over-reached. This is too ambitious. The war movie part is surprisingly competent. It doesn't excel and may be beyond their abilities. After the war, it struggles to get the emotional tension. Like the Hughes, Larenz Tate may not be up to the challenge. The personal post-war struggle is compelling but could be much more. The final shootout doesn't have quite the thrills but has plenty of blood.

Hughes Brothers Deliver

[view_and_review · 8/10 · 4 September 2020]

"Dead Presidents" is a classic in my book. I could suffice with that statement but I'll add a bit more. It was a well acted and well directed drama that seemed to be funny when it needed to be (thank you Chris Tucker), dramatic when it needed to be, and even violent when it needed to be. Some of, if not most of the violence was pretty graphic--that can be taken as a positive or negative. I'm not perturbed by it, but I can see how some are.

I loved the story. It was simple yet complex. It was really about five years in the life of a young Black man from New York spanning from 1968 to 1973. From his high school years on the streets of the Bronx, to his years in Vietnam, to his return to a family and struggling with life in the world. I think "Dead Presidents" was an excellent production that didn't short change us at all in any aspect.

Dead Presidents? Where???

[stamper · 7/10 · 30 April 2001]

I really do not know what to make of this movie. I do not even understand it's title (maybe it is because I'm European). Anyway this is not a bad movie. It is about a black man and how his life is affected by the time he lives in and the choices he made. It's about a man who could have gone to college but goes to fight in the Vietnam War (a white man's war) and his experiences in that war and after that war. Somehow this does not sound bad right? But it is not good my friends. I really could not get into the story and the characters (maybe that's my fault) But one thing I really missed here was suspense, well worked out characters and stuff. All this film had was a lot of blood. Not recommended if you want to see a good film about war. I was a bit entertained though by lots of blood and some gory stuff I've never seen before.

6.5 out of 10

Lethargic

[FunnyMann · 5/10 · 19 November 2001]

*****WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER*****

Sifting through the comments for "Dead Presidents," I was starting to think I saw a different movie than everyone else until I found one other person who thought it was slow and directionless. Thank God for that guy.

The Hughes brothers had a great concept in depicting Vietnam and life afterwards from a black soldier's perspective. A much needed perspective, since countless movies have showed things from the white POV. Problem is, the Hughes brothers took this concept and sucked the life out of it with sloooow pacing and an unfocused script.

I'll say this: The directors have a knack for framing interesting shots, and when they do make a point, it resonates. It's just that their points would have been so much sharper if they didn't take forever getting to them. We've all listened to someone tell a story that should be interesting but isn't because they kill it with a sleepy pace, boring sidenotes and irrelevant details. That's what happens here.

A movie is kind of like a bank robbery. It might sound like a great idea, but if you botch the execution, it all goes to hell. Sadly, in "Dead Presidents," art imitates itself.

A strong movie about life for a black man after the Vietnam war

[martymaster · 19 June 2001]

For all those who liked the movie "Menace 2 Society",you are going to love this one. This movie features the star from Menace to Society "Larenz Tate" and the well known "Chris Tucker". This is a very violent movie and have a few very gory scenes of the Vietnam war,but that is okay because this movie really shows how difficult it must have been for a black man growing up in the Bronx in the 60's.And it shows how life is for him and his friends after coming home from the Vietnam war. The language in this movie is of course very tough and rough and I could actually count the f-word 247 times in this movie and that speaks for it's self.

This is an extremely well made movie that really shows the reality of how hard the world can be for some people.

I advice everybody to go out and pick up this movie, because it is a story that you got to hear.

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT AS GOOD AS ANYTHING TARANTINO OR SCORSESE HAS DONE!!!

[lukem-52760 · 6/10 · 6 September 2020]

The 2nd movie of the Awesome Hughes bro's after their smash hit instant Classic MENACE 2 SOCIETY, this movie is truly a masterful piece of Cinema, it's part Urban Drama, part War film & part Heist Thriller all crafted around being a period piece. We get the swinging soulful 1960's explored & the very gritty, bleak & dark 1970's explored through the streets of Brooklyn as we follow our main lead, the excellent baby-faced LARENZE TATE, who blasted his way on to the screen in the hood Classic Menace 2 Society, here he's cast as the lead & gives another excellent performance, he goes to Vietnam & becomes a good soldier & a good man but when he gets back his old neighbourhood is a struggling bleak place, the facts of a black man returning home to nothing is all harsh in it's reality of the time, there's a mean streak of realism throughout the film just like Menace, they fought a war for America that they didn't want to & came back disturbed & with nothing!!! This is a fantastic character study too as we witness the main group of friends start to fall apart after returning home from Nam such as Chris Tucker & Freddie Rodriguez who both give superb performances as does the whole incredible cast with Keith David (Platoon, They Live) & Terrance Howard (Hustle & Flow, Iron-man) & of Course as mentioned, Chris Tucker (Friday, Jackie Brown) & Freddie Rodriguez (Harsh Times, Planet Terror) & Bokeem Woodbine (Riddick, The Rock) all these make a great ensemble cast & interesting characters.

There's an astonishing rich detail to this movie, you cam feel the Hughes bro's confidence here in every frame, this is an epic movie & a powerful one too. The cinematography is fantastic, the soulful soundtrack is Awesome & the attention to detail of it's time period is stunning, a well crafted story. The Vietnam scenes are brutal, shocking, bloody & funny all the tone they had created with Menace is here. I'm gutted that Leranze Tate didn't become a huge star after his performance here? & after his outstanding & iconic dubet performance as O-Dog in Menace? Hollywood is a strange & corrupted place. I could feel the anger within this movie of how blacks are treated & i can totally understand why these dudes end up doing alot of the bad shi#t they do out of desperation & frustration, it's an interesting look at the urban street life of the almost Apocalyptic 1970's & how broken people try to survive.

A Classic piece of filmmaking

An urban drama that tries to be an epic but doesn't quite make it.

[Gideon24 · 6/10 · 10 April 2015]

Dead Presidents is a gritty 1995 urban drama that tries to tell an epic story on a very intimate canvas, but only partially succeeds.

The film stars Larenz Tate as Anthony Curtis, an aimless youth who is working for a local numbers runner (Keith David), who upsets his family when, instead of going to college, decides to enter the military and gets sent to Vietnam. The meat of the film focuses on his return from Vietnam where he learns he has a daughter he knew nothing about, has no way to support her, and learns that his daughter and his Baby Mama (Rose Jackson) have been taken care of by a slimy pimp (Clifton Powell). When the nothing job he gets with a butcher turns out to be insufficient to support his daughter and the child that's on the way, he ends up turning to crime.

The Hughes Brothers, who were much more successful with Menace II Society, give us a long, rambling film that suffers primarily due to an overblown and preachy screenplay. The section of the film where Anthony is in Vietnam is way too long and ends just in time for us to continue caring what happens.

Tate's baby-faced sincerity goes a long way in making us care about Anthony and both David and Powell make the most of the meaty roles they've been given. Chris Tucker is also effective as Anthony's junkie friend who contracted Agent Orange in Vietnam and N'Bushe Wright as Jackson's sister, who is instrumental in Anthony's descent into a life of crime.

The movie is way too long, but Tate's solid on screen charisma does help to sustain interest for the most part.

Pretty solid follow up to Menace 2 Society from The Hughes Brothers

[dworldeater · 7/10 · 8 February 2021]

Dead Presidents is a pretty grim depiction of both the war in Vietnam and the aftermath taken from the point of view from a black man and his circle of friends from the Bronx. The Hugh Brothers pull no punches in showing the horrors of war. Plus they show the circumstances that lead to poverty and desperation that lead to a violent heist gone way wrong with bullet ridden corpses. Larenz Tate (from Menace...) is excellent and very sympathetic as the lead. Keith David is incredible as always and Chris Tucker is less annoying than usual. I prefer Menace 2 Society over this for sure, but Dead Presidents is a pretty solid, tragic and action packed picture bringing social commentary without being preachy and being entertaining and well performed as well.

Amazing

[Mamasgirl82 · 9/10 · 25 July 2020]

I was 13 when this movie came out so I didn't see it for a couple of years but once I did I LOVED it. I have watched it at least twice a year since. If you like in to deep, set it off or boys in the hood then you will absolutely love it. Only movie I watch more often is poetic justice and new jack city. If you haven't seen it then you should.

A very good action movie

[jaroddfinch · 7/10 · 4 May 2021]

This movie is very good it's very violet Chris tucker acting was good the first time I watch this is when I was 14 and I didn't really understand it at first but when I got older I started to understand what was going on in the movie I'm a really big action movie person if you like action movies you will like this one.

War and poverty lead to robbery in post-Vietnam New York

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 17 January 2019]

Opening in 1969, in the South Bronx, we are introduced to protagonist Anthony Curtis and his friends who are talking about what they will do after they finish school. Anthony decides to sign up for service in the US Marines. While there he fights alongside some of his old friends and makes new ones. After four years serving his country he returns home and discovers life isn't easy for a young black man during an economic downturn. He gets a job but it doesn't pay much; his girlfriend, and mother of his child, is getting money from a pimp and his girlfriend's sister is in a radical militant group. When he loses his job he and his friends work with a local criminal to make one big score... to rob an armoured car taking used currency to be incinerated.

When I sat down to watch this I was expecting a fairly conventional heist movie; that is certainly what the DVD box implied... in fact that is only a very small part of the film. Rather than the conventional heist movie where the first half is the planning before the execution this is about the events that led a promising young man to turn crime. The early scenes serve to introduce us to Anthony and his friends; he clearly isn't a saint as we see him working for a local crook but he still volunteers and ends up fighting in Vietnam where he sees some very unpleasant things. The scenes set during the war are in turns exciting and disturbing but not entirely without humour. Back in the US the film captures the poverty of Bronx where there are few real opportunities for most people; and while not justifying it explains why some turn to crime or radicalism. When we finally get to the robbery it is well handled; exciting without being glamourous. The cast does a fine job; most notably Larenz Tate who excels as Anthony and Chris Tucker who brings humour to the proceedings, as his friend Skip, without going too far and feeling out of place. Overall I'd definitely recommend this; just don't expect a traditional crime/heist movie.

Decent

[kevdoggy · 6/10 · 21 July 2002]

The Hughes Brothers have a visual sense, and can direct action, but the dialog was pretty pedestrian, and there was a sense of too many people working here.

It's a war pic, it's a romance, it's a heist movie, it's a buddy movie, it's a message movie.

Clarity, gentlemen. Let one person write the script and stick to it (with small adjustments).

There was some to praise here, including the fact that the Hughes Bros. drew excellent performances from several actors here (Keith David is always convincing), and especially Larenz Tate. He's a good young actor...I'm surprised to see he's done little of note since.

"Dead" "Presidents"

[dee.reid · 10/10 · 11 February 2005]

"Dead Presidents," the Hughes Brothers' ambitious 1995 follow-up to their equally ambitious debut, the gritty and ultraviolent 1993 drama "Menace II Society," is about as ambitious as most films can get, and in some ways it's better than their previous film, and in some ways it's not.

Many have taken note of co-directing team Allen and Albert Hughes' referencing to their cinema heroes like Martin Scorsese and the bloody gangster classic "Scarface." Indeed, observant viewers will note the explicit bloodshed that's prevalent in "Dead Presidents" as being homage to the graphic gangster pictures of yesteryear, and that doesn't make it bad.

"Presidents" takes a look at the role that the color green played in the lives young black men before and after Vietnam. In fact, on the killing fields of good old 'Nam, mankind is seen at its absolute lowest, where soldiers on both sides of the conflict commit horrific atrocities, including a scene where a black soldier decapitates a (dead) Viet Cong and keeps the head for good luck, or when an American soldier is gutted and castrated.

Obviously, the Hughes Brothers have some real big qualms about black mens' involvement in that conflict, and the film's central character, Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate), finds little prospects awaiting him in the Bronx after doing two tours in Vietnam.

Before he left, however, he'd impregnated his girlfriend Juanita (Rose Jackson) and while in country, he doesn't permit himself to think of what he's left behind in America. So when Anthony's forced to leave his low-paying job as a meat cutter, it's not a surprise that he's already begun plans to knock off an armored truck to get some "dead presidents," which is street slang for dollar bills.

So, together with his two involuntarily enlisted Vietnam buddies Skip (Chris Tucker) and Jose (Freddy Rodriguez), Anthony's Uncle Kirby (Keith David), Juanita's radicalized sister Delilah (N'Bushe Wright) and Cleon (Bokeem Woodbine), they proceed to knock over the truck and make way with its valuable assets.

The film is most definitely a gritty look at the "black experience" during the Civil Rights era and the Hughes Brothers certainly pay a lot more attention to the details of the picture. It's not better than "Menace," but is certainly better-made, now that they have been given a more reasonable budget.

10/10

dead presidents

[kairingler · 6/10 · 7 July 2013]

when I first bought the movie I had no idea that it had to do with soldiers coming back from Vietnam. I thought it was just another run of the mill bank robbery movie , with our villains dressing up as dead president't ala Point Break. wrong,, my bad.. so it was interesting to see what the effects of the war brought on these 4 gentleman who come back from Vietnam with obvious pain and mental issues to deal with, besides the fact that they are back in society now , and not in the jungle anymore, they have to deal with wives. family, jobs, finances, how to live in society, well for the most part it get's the better of all of these gentleman one by one,, I did like the robbery scene very much,, the action was good, the pacing wasn't too bad. and I will have to give this movie another look and see in the near future.

Nothing but a Black Panther propaganda film

[blaisetelfer · 1/10 · 8 November 2009]

Please spare me this cliché: the tragedies of a shell-shocked veteran who comes back to his inner city neighborhood and has trouble finding work, his disillusion with the American dream, and how joining the military was the worst decision he ever made. That I could handle, (because I've seen it a million times), but all that nonsense at the end about "how dare you lock me up, after all I did for this country", spoken by a cop-killer? The Black Panthers are portrayed as strong and justified, when really they were a bunch of jabbering radicals who couldn't grow out of their teenage rebellion. The main character was not screwed by "the man" or "the system", he was just psychotic. A lot of men came back from Vietnam and many were troubled, but most did not hit their wives or robbed armored cars.