Writer/director John Singleton fails to
deliver his usual charisma and intensity in
this companion piece to his 1991 breakthrough
film Boyz N the Hood. Shifting gears
from his trademark gangster themes, Singleton
examines the emotional infancy that traps
African Americans and limites their potential
to achieve the American Dream. R&B star and
MTV host Tyrese Gibson stars as Jody, a
chauvinistic pot smoker who sells stolen
dresses, has fathered two kids with different
women, and still lives with his own mother
(A.J. Johnson), who must have gotten pregnant
in the third grade. Some tension arises when
the mother's new boyfriend moves in, a beefed
up and bare-butted menacing ex-thug (Ving
Rhames), but the monotonous sequences, hot
and cold inconsistencies, comic-relief cameo
by Snoop Doggy Dog, and out-of-nowhere ending
keep this film from ever growing up.