Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Set It Off Blu-ray Movie Review

“So, what’s the procedure when you have a gun to your head?”

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater September 14, 2009

The heist film, in general, is a fairly simple genre. You have a group of characters planning to steal something—usually money or an object that can be sold for money—and a typical three-act plot that leads from motivations and preparation to the heist itself, and eventually to the inevitable downfall or escape. Plot points may differ and there may be serpentine twists and turns along the way, but most caper flicks tend to follow this generic structure. The only real differentiation between films, then, is the style in which they’re told and the characters that inhabit them. Yet, even the characters have a degree of sameness. How many times have we seen a criminal who wants to go clean, setting up that last big job that will give him enough dough to escape his past? Set It Off never deviates from the well-tread plot paths of the archetypal heist film, but it does trade stock, white male criminal characters for four underprivileged and under-empowered African- American women who seek to escape not a criminal past, but the socio-economic constraints of life in “the hood.”

Mo' money, mo' problems...

Set If Off, in some ways, is the anti-Waiting to Exhale, a film that came out the previous year and proved, quite handily, that stories about African-American women can have big box-office appeal. Whereas Whitney Huston and her friends are successful, upwardly mobile members of society, the four women in Set If Off are at the other end of the spectrum, just scraping by in a world that allows them no leeway and little opportunity for advancement. Frankie Sutton (Vivica A. Fox), a teller at a downtown bank, has the most prospects, but when a thug she knows from her neighborhood robs the branch—leaving several dead—Frankie is unjustly fired for possible “collusion” with the robber. To make ends meet, she takes a job working at Luther Janitorial with her three best friends. Tisean “T.T.” Williams (Kimberly Elise) is a young single mother, Cleopatra “Cleo” Sims (Queen Latifah) is a trash talking lesbian who lives in an abandoned garage with her lover, and Lita “Stoney” Newsom (Jada Pinkett) is trying desperately to scrape together the cash to send her younger brother Stevie (Chaz Lemar Shepherd) to UCLA. When Tisean’s child gets taken away by social services and Stoney’s brother gets murdered by the cops—who mistake him a little too coincidentally for the aforementioned bank robber—the four women hatch a plan to take something back from the system that so royally screwed them over. Donning wigs and sunglasses, and toting guns courtesy of arms- dealer Black Sam (Dr. Dre in a fine cameo), they begin to hit up area banks. Meanwhile, Stoney is developing a relationship with a Harvard-educated banker (Blair Underwood) who offers her a way out of the ghetto, and Detective Strode (Scrubs’ John C. McGinley), the officer responsible for Stevie’s death, is piecing together the four women’s identities.

Yes, there are some coincidences that are bit difficult to swallow, and yes, the story is completely predictable, but director F. Gary Gray (Be Cool, The Italian Job) charges the film with a kinetic sense of momentum. Hot off his success with the comedy Friday, he takes on Set It Off with the zeal of a director given his first chance at making an action film. The pre-credit stick-up scene is an effective hook for the audience, as it sets an immediate, cautionary tone. When an innocent bystander gets shot through the head at point-blank range, we realize that the film isn’t going to hold back, and that anything could happen. Though the beats are familiar, the robbery sequences are handled with confidence and the climactic endgame has the look and feel of a much bigger-budgeted production.

The emphasis is firmly on character over action, however, and Set It Off differentiates itself by allowing ample time at the outset to develop the relationships between the four friends. Seeing them share a joint on a rooftop, overlooking an abandoned factory, we believe that they go way back. When tragedy strikes and Stony’s brother is killed, the collective, I’ll-be-there-for- you mourning process is brief but effective, and the resulting impetus for the women to begin robbing banks works in a movieland kind of way, even if their motivations seem somewhat thin by real life standards. The film does flit dangerously close to employing some stereotyped characters—especially the poor single mom—but I was surprised by how Cleo’s lesbianism is treated so matter-of-factly, and isn’t exploited, as it would be in a lesser film, for laughs or titillation. The performances are solid throughout, with perhaps the exception of Kimberly Elise, who spends most of the film on the sidelines of the action, her lower lip in a perpetual quiver. The other women, though, are spot-on. This film really launched Queen Latifah’s acting career and you can see why—she’s alternately brash, funny, tender and profane. Jada Pinkett’s trajectory is by and large convincing—her grief hardens a bit too quickly—and she becomes the character that we latch on to the most. Vivica A. Fox also brings the goods, and when she erupts after being fired from her teller job, we totally buy her WTF (I’ll leave that one abbreviated) sense of injustice. A special shout-out should also go to the undervalued John C. McGinley, whose good cop/mistaken cop performance is rounded and satisfying.

The relationship between Stony and her ivy-league-educated love interest Keith initially seems like a misdirect, but it actually provides the overarching message of the story. Stony could simply settle in for the good life with him—he basically invites her to be a gold-digger—but that would negate her own sense of self-empowerment. When Cleo tells her, “We aint nothing but hood rats,” Stony responds with, “Why do we have to roll over and accept that though?" "We’ve got to have a plan,” she says, answering the film’s thematic question of how to get out of the cycle of poverty. Granted, robbing banks isn’t the best plan—as evidenced by the film’s finale— but the importance lies in recognizing the situation, seeing that it doesn’t have to be permanent, and making a choice for change. Set It Off, then, is a spark.

Set It Off Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

If you were expecting to be robbed by a mediocre print of a mid-1990s film, you can put your hands down and untighten your sphincter, as Set If Off arrives on Blu-ray with a clean and detailed 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer. Considering the film's relatively low budget, I was impressed by the quality of the picture. Let's get this out of the way at the start: there's plenty of grain here. Thick, chunky patterns of it buzz over the out-of-focus portions of the image, most noticeably during the dimmer indoor scenes. That said, this is how the film is supposed to look, and the grittiness is more than appropriate for the story. Despite the grain, most of the film has a sharp look, with lots of texture apparent in fine detail—like the threading in cloth and the patterned ripple of cornrow hair braids. While the overall clarity and sense of depth may not drop jaws, Set It Off looks fantastic in high definition. Sunlight shines down on the Los Angeles streets, giving the outdoor scenes a warm, nicely contrasted glow. Colors are pleasingly saturated, from the seedy reds and purples of a cheap motel room to the clean blue of the jumpsuits the women wear while knocking off the downtown Federal bank. There are a few crushed details, but all in all, black levels are tuned well. I did notice two or three instances of minor contrast wavering, where the color depth of background surfaces seemed to flicker and strobe, but I didn't catch any pesky bandwidth-related, blocking and banding problems. Fans of the film will be more than pleased with this release.

Set It Off Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, Set It Off surprises in the audio department with some enveloping sound design, courtesy of a loud and capable Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround track. The film takes little time in ramping up the sonic action, as the opening bank robbery sequence features sub-machine gun bullets ripping through the rear channels from all directions, sirens sounding off outside, and a throbbing low-end presence holding it all together. Later robberies find slugs pinging off and cracking through marble, plate glass windows shattering with keen directionality, and helicopters panning over the skidding getaway car with convincing fluidity. The quieter, conversational scenes also get their due, with subtle city street ambience in the surrounds and clear-as-a-bell dialogue. The dynamic range is similarly impressive, with nicely defined bass that roars when it needs to, articulate high-end sound effects, and a full mid-range that never hollows out or becomes muffled. This is one mix that never shows signs of the film's age or budget, and it's likely the best that Set It Off has ever sounded.

Set It Off Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Setting It Straight: Making Set It Off (1080i, 26:36)
A great retrospective on the creation of Set It Off, Setting It Straight features interviews with all of the key players in the film's production. Director F. Gary Gray discusses the bank heist genre and how he wanted the film to emphasize character over style, writer Takashi Bufford gives some insight into his inspirations while crafting the script, and former New Line executive Helena Echegoyan talks about the importance of the film's fantasy of empowerment. The four main female actors also show up to dissect their roles and comment on the effect that the film had on each of their careers. There's very little behind-the-scenes, on-set footage here—it's mostly talking head interviews interspersed with clips from the film—but fans will enjoy this look back at the mid-1990s. And props to Warner for including the documentary in high definition.

Music Video: "Let it Go" by Ray J (SD, 4:55)

Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2:25)

Set It Off Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Warner seemed to be playing the six-degrees-of-separation game with their September 8th catalog releases. Catwoman features Sharon Stone, who is also to be found in Sphere with Queen Latifah, who provides a break-out performance in Set It Off. All three films have been given an excellent treatment on Blu-ray (I know, Catwoman doesn't deserve it), but Set It Off is the film I'd recommend most.