8 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.9 |
A tale of three friends growing up together 'in the 'hood.' Half-brothers Doughboy and Ricky Baker are foils for each other's personality, presenting very different approaches to the tough lives they face. Ricky is the 'All-American' athlete, looking to win a football scholarship to USC and seeks salvation through sports, while 'Dough' succumbs to the violence, alcohol, and crime surrounding him in his environment, but maintains a strong sense of pride and code of honor. Between these two is their friend Tre, who is lucky to have a father, 'Furious' Styles, to teach him to have the strength of character to do what is right and to always take responsibility for his actions.
Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nia Long, Morris ChestnutCrime | 100% |
Coming of age | 30% |
Drama | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A bullet don't have no name on it.
Director John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood is a gut-wrenching, hard-hitting, and brutally honest look at the impact that the violence and
despair of South Central Los Angeles has on the lives of several young African Americans as they live their lives as best they can amidst
the chaos of the neighborhood and the hopelessness that surrounds them. A superior film in every regard, Boyz n the Hood succeeds not
exclusively because of its steady cast and quality direction, but primarily due to its unflinching realism, high drama, and tight script, the latter of which
develops its characters extraordinarily well, a bit too broadly perhaps but to the point that audiences may easily identify with them no matter their
race, class, or place they call home, be it in South Central Los Angeles of thousands of miles away in America's biggest cities or smallest towns. The
film is one of sweeping emotions that quickly hit home but settle in to trouble viewers for the long haul after the film ends. Boyz n the Hood
engenders so many questions that have no real answers. The picture, however, doesn't set out to solve the problems of the 'hood but instead
provide a snapshot, a glimpse into what it's like to live in what almost seems to be an inescapable prison of sorts that slowly, in the blink of an eye, and
oftentimes both aims to take away everything a man may have, his spirit included, as the violence and distress take their tolls on all who enter and the
few who leave.
A day in the life of the 'hood.
Boyz n the Hood rolls onto Blu-ray with a steady 1080p transfer that's way more hit than miss. Sony's latest catalogue transfer does the twenty-year-old picture proud, displaying a quality film-like image that retains its natural grain structure and yields good, positive details across the board, particularly evidenced in clothing textures and the nitty-gritty fine details of the concrete urban jungle. The image lacks much in the way of natural depth and a soft and hazy veneer comes into play from time to time, but such aren't deal-breaking or even really nagging issues. Colors are very well balanced; whether green grasses or the many hues as seen on clothing, the transfer handles every one of them with a natural flavor that serves as one of the transfer's best assets and most stable elements. Blacks are fair, though they sometimes look either a touch washed out or a hair overwhelming and detrimental to finer foreground details as noted during a few nighttime shots. For a twenty-year-old film, the results are quite good. Suffice it to say, this is the absolute best Boyz n the Hood has ever looked for general home viewing.
Boyz n the Hood's Blu-ray debut features a dynamic DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There's no shortage of activity in this one; whether gunfire, thumping bass, buzzing helicopters, or the din of the 'hood, the track always has something to offer and play out of every speaker. The surround channels are nearly as active as the fronts, playing a critical part in transporting listeners into the urban environment so as to better understand all that makes it a uniquely dangerous place. Clarity could use a boost at times, and bass is occasionally more concerned with power than it is tightness and accuracy, but overall the track proves itself time and again to be a winner, whether in the delivery of the heaviest sound effects or the lightest atmospherics alike. Dialogue is strong and center-weighted, though there's a time or two when it plays with a slightly tinny feel. Generally, however, the track does everything well and proves one of the more wholly immersive catalogue presentations out there.
Boyz n the Hood arrives on Blu-ray with an honest assortment of extras, including an audio commentary track, a high quality retrospective
feature, and a
collection of deleted scenes. Note that the title of one of the deleted scenes contains a major spoiler for the film.
Boyz n the Hood excels as a coming of age film that's unlike any other of its kind. Where most characters in such pictures learn more about themselves, those in Boyz n the Hood struggle to figure out where they are and why their environment is so conducive to the violence and hopelessness that's squeezed all but the literal life out of them, and even then, the violence takes its fair share of that, too. They must learn the whys of where they live before they can focus on the hows of improving their own lives, but as every day goes by a little bit of them is killed off as opportunities and hopes and dreams pass them by. This is a challenging film to watch and one that's even more difficult to understand. It's a rewarding but also a punishing experience all at once, a film that transcends its place and time and people as a serious and unflinching look at a slice of life few ever know. Sony's Blu-ray release of Boyz n the Hood features a solid technical presentation and a fair array of quality extras. Highly recommended.
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