Dead Presidents

Brothers In Arms.

Albert and Allen Hughes direct, produce and co-write (with Michael Henry Brown) this tale about Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate), a South Bronx boy who goes off to fight in Vietnam, to then return after his tours of duty to find things just aren't the same anymore. The follow up to their incendiary debut, Menace II Society, the Hughes brothers deliver another in your face picture that is quite frankly on a perpetual downer. This is no bad thing, though, as long as you are not looking to be cheered up.

That's Uncle Sam for you! Mean Green.

The pic very much harks back to the glory days of film noir in the 40s and 50s, where some talented film makers began to tell stories of returning war veterans finding what they left...

The fairly charismatic Larenz Tate tries quite hard here as "Curtis", a lad with potential who falls in with petty criminal "Kirby" (Keith David) before enlisting in the US Marines to go and fight in Vietnam. After the war, he returns to his girlfriend "Juanita" (Rose Jackson) and his four year old daughter - but acclimatising to his new situation proves too difficult leading him to reunite with his wartime colleagues to carry out a daring armoured car heist. The story is pretty formulaic and the actors are rarely challenged by the lacklustre script - that does little to develop any characterisations - and the largely unimaginative direction. There is a missed opportunity to look at the post war trauma and loneliness; the sense of abandonme...

Bank robbery movie. The planning they do is next to none. Awesome action but also pretty sad.