Juice Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Juice Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 19, 2017

Juice was directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, the longtime cinematographer best known for shooting some of Spike Lee's best films, including Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X. Making his directorial debut with Juice, Dickerson doesn't necessarily channel Lee's style and vision but he does explore within the same dramatic zip code, his film telling the story of four young African Americans as they traverse the difficult paths of then-contemporary youth. There film is richly textured in both sound and sight, capturing both the musical beat and the visual life essence of life on the street. It's a rock-solid film, built on a familiar foundation but explored with keen insight and a unique style that makes it a standout, a wonderful effort for a first-time filmmaker.

Q: DJ

Four young men -- Bishop (Tupac Shakur), Q (Omar Epps), Raheem (Khalil Kain), and Steel (Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins) -- are Harlemites who lack direction. They whittle away their days stealing records or hanging out at the local arcade. They commit petty theft at the record store. Q has dreams of becoming a professional DJ. He's skilled at the art and captures the attention of a woman (Queen Latifah) who puts him on the fast track to success. But the group's violent tendencies, a planned robbery, increasing brazenness, and peer pressure put Q in a difficult situation that promises dire circumstances for himself and everyone around him.

Juice begins as a snapshot movie, capturing the seemingly mundane, everyday comings-and-goings of its four lead characters. They're rattled out of bed by adults who admonish their apparent laziness. They prepare for their day with the beats of the day, and their music comes to define their personalities. Then they steal that music, planning and executing a none-too-dissicult scheme to distract a record store clerk and shove a few albums under a newspaper. Things only spiral from there. Even as some of them work to escape the wrong path -- Q makes an impression as a DJ but his commitment to his friends and, by extension, crime, draws him back away from what he knows and loves and what might very well prove the very escape he needs -- that darkness always seems to beckon, and the film grows bleaker as the characters grow emotionally colder and more detached from reality and the consequences of their actions. To be sure, this is nothing new, but Dickerson infuses it with a richness of texture in terms of character, environment, and sound to the point that the movie takes on a life of its own, even as its fundamentals feel borrowed from other films. At the same time, though, its life-reflection texturing gives it a soul all its own.

The films develops its characters carefully, mixing both broad-stroke generalization with the sort of intimate portraiture that allows the movie to excel beyond its cruder plot developments and details. Each actor delivers a carefully constructed yet, at the same time, naturally organic performance that breathes life into the characters that the script alone cannot provide. The work feels effortless and real rather than practiced and fake. The actors grasp the movie's grit and enhance it, delivering what are often texturally layered works that never wants for increased depth, both individually and on the collective level within their circle and their interactions with the world around them. It's truly a yin-and-yang experience where everything seems to work in harmony, as everything is complimentary -- acting, photography, soundtrack -- that allows the movie to evolve beyond its stock opening act and explore the depths necessary to paint one of the more vivid pictures of its world that any film has produced so far.

Juice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Juice, which released in the pre-digital photography era in 1992, features a very handsome and natural 1080p transfer. It's bountifully filmic, offering a light, evenly dispersed grain structure with only mild spike to it. Details are excellent. Textural nuance is very impressive, whether considering faces, complexly stitched or densely constructed clothes, or various examples of rougher urban surfaces, like concrete and brick. Clarity and sharpness extend through the image. Colors are well defined. The movie can be fairly dark or often lacking in serious, punchy color, but the palette stands strong as it's presented. Red jackets push the image nicely in an early scene, particularly as they contrast against a rather flat, dull, gray-dominant backdrop. Black levels and shadow detail are stable and flesh tones are healthy and accurate. The image shows no visible compression artifacts and only a hint of print deterioration is evident; a stray vertical line that lasts but a few seconds at the 59:25 mark is the only distraction. This is a very impressive catalogue release from Paramount.

Juice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Juice features a hip and happening soundtrack from the golden era of Hip-Hop, but it's not particularly dazzling here. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack certainly serves it well, but extension beyond the fronts and any serious low end thump are hard to come by. The opening title music struggles to push even a bit away from the center. The track does open up as the film moves along, offering increased range and pleasing all-around clarity to instrumentals and effects (particularly during some of the DJ scenes). Still, front-side push is about the track's limit, particularly disappointing given the relative dearth of serious bass. Otherwise, the track is fine, if not a bit straightforward. Environmental ambience helps fill in a few scenes, and is impressive both in quieter moments and more boisterous ones as well. Several action effects, like crashes and gunshots, satisfy base requirements. Dialogue delivery is firm in its center-front position. Clarity and prioritization are fine.

Juice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Juice contains a commentary, featurettes, and a photo gallery.

• Audio Commentary: Director Ernest R. Dickerson offers an impressive track that is both well spoken at an even cadence while delivering a fountain of information about the film: script, cast, story, themes, structure, and much more. It's far more detailed than is possible to reproduce here. It's a very worthwhile listen.
• You've Got the Juice Now (1080p, 19:12): A retrospective that explores the movie's roots, the script, the style, story and themes, cast and performances, life on the set, the film's ending, and more. The piece also includes vintage interview clips and footage from the set. This is an excellent piece that is much like the movie: honest, raw, and compelling.
• The Wrecking Crew (1080p, 23:44): A more in-depth look at the characters, cast, and the performances. This supplement is, like the previous, assembled from both new interviews as well as older clips from the shoot.
• Sip the Juice: The Music (1080p, 12:51): As the title suggests, this extras focuses on the importance of music in the film, and it is also assembled with new interviews and vintage footage.
• Stay in the Scene: The Interview (1080p, 22:43): The film's four primary actors sit down to chat about the film.
• Photo Gallery (1080p): Still photos from the shoot.

Juice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Juice might not get quite the recognition it deserves if only because a name like John Singleton or Spike Lee isn't attached to it, but it's nearly as good as either of those filmmakers' best works. It's certainly the beneficiary of tremendous lead performances, particularly from Omar Epps and the late Tupac Shakur, but Dickerson's direction and script (co-written with Gerard Brown) complete the movie and give it a beautifully organic and vivid yet gritty snapshot into 90s urban life. Paramount's Blu-ray is rock-solid, featuring superb 1080p video, good lossless audio, and a solid selection of several quality supplements. Highly recommended.