Product Description

Get ready for action with this explosively exciting hit! On the streets they call cash dead presidents. And that's just what a Vietnam veteran (Larenz Tate -- MENACE II SOCIETY) is after when he returns home from the war only to find himself drawn into a life of crime. With the aid of his fellow vets he plans the ultimate heist -- a daring robbery of an armored car filled with unmarked U.S. currency! From the Hughes Brothers, acclaimed directors of the smash hit MENACE II SOCIETY -- you'll love every pulse-pounding second as these bold thieves risk it all for the score of a lifetime!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7963 in DVD
• Brand: TATE,LARENZ
• Released on: 1998-05-20
• Rating: NC-17
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.com
Twin brother codirectors Albert and Alan Hughes planned their first film, the 1991 ghetto crime drama Menace II Society as a response to John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood, which they considered wimpy and moralistic. They set their sights on The Deer Hunter in this ambitious follow-up, and they just about pull it off. Larenz Tate (from Why Do Fools Fall in Love) plays Anthony Curtis, an open-hearted African American teenager who gets shipped out to Vietnam with several of his pals, witnesses unspeakable horrors, and then struggles to readjust to civilian life. The evolving textures of life in a declining inner-city neighborhood over a period of a decade are seamlessly evoked, and there's enough nuanced character development and personal interaction for a seven-hour miniseries. Still in their early 20s, the Hughes brothers are already poised and masterful moviemakers; they cover an enormous amount of historical and emotional ground, and every twist and turn is crystal clear. They betray their inexperience only at the very end, in an elaborately staged heist sequence that, while stunningly executed, feels a bit desperate, as if they were reaching blindly for a big payoff. Chris Tucker (Rush Hour) has a startling supporting role as a kid who becomes junkie during the war, and never quite recovers. --David Chute

From The New Yorker
Albert and Allen Hughes's first film, "Menace II Society," was an exciting blast of ghetto life, loaded with edgy humor that masked a deeper, more thoughtful despair. Their new picture-about a young black man's journey from the Bronx to Vietnam and back again-is an ambitious misfire. In the early scenes, which introduce the main character (Larenz Tate) and his friends and family, the Hugheses find a natural humor and a soulful rhythm. Then the friends ship off to Vietnam, are hardened by the insanity they live through there, return to an America that offers them little opportunity, and turn to crime. Although the movie is disjointed, the filmmakers pull off some bravura sequences (the armored-car robbery at the end is spectacular), and they know how to get a scene moving and build on it with a Scorsese-like sweep. Tate, Keith David, and Bokeem Woodbine put a great deal of heart into their performances, but because the characters are little more than types the film turns into one more indict-the-system polemic with little emotional pull. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

A great follow up to Meance II Society
The Hughes Brothers did the impossible for some directors avoided the sophmore slump. Dead Presidents is a ghetto classic about violence and a heist. Larenz Tate is good in the lead role and Chris Tucker is funny as always. This movie is very deep and thought provking and it's a shame The Hughes Brothers haven't done a movie since From Hell. After their sucess with American Pimp I thought for sure they'd take on Pimp by Iceberg Silm. Never the less still a good film.

Interesting Take on the Black Experience Following Vietnam
The Hughes Brothers' Dead Presidents provides an interesting take on the American experience following the Vietnam war. While many directors have worked with this time period(Hal Ashby, Oliver Stone) this is the first film that deals with the issue from the standpoint of the returning black veteran.

Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate)tries to be a good citizen. He graduates from a Bronx high school and feeling that he is not ready for collge joins the Marine Corps and is sent to Vietnam where he is a member of a special Recon platoon. After serving his counrty he returns to his old neighborhood to find everything that he believed in has changed. Struggling to get by he plans with some friends an armored car robbery.

The film is one of the most powerful that I have seen dealing with the return of veterans in a long time. What we get is a universal story not just a black one and the Hughes Brothers are to be commended for this. The film is a period piece and evokes the time in question quite well. If there is a flaw with this film it is that the ending seems a little contrived. The robbery did not have to happen to make this film enjoyable. It was put on simply so that the film could be labeled as an action film. Action sells better than dramas about characters obviously.

The disc I viewed was a rather bare bones affair. This is a film that should be rereleased in a better edition on the order of the Hughes Brothers From Hell release. A commentary track would have been appreciated.

See this one it's worth it.

Doesn't Hold Up
I just watched this movie again after several years. I remember I liked it the first time, but it wasn't as good as Menace II Society. After watching it again last night I realized that this movie is a bomb. The acting is good and the characters are interesting, but the movie is so slow and then they rush to an ending that isn't set up very well. Then all of a sudden it's over. Are we supposed to feel bad for somebody getting 15 years to life after he contributed to the deaths of several innocent people? 15 years?! He got off easy. This movie felt like 15 to life while I watched it. Feel bad for me instead because I watched this crap twice and feel bad for yourself if you watch it even once. Terrible movie.