| | | A film by John Singleton.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Surround Sound, French, Dubbed & Subtitled
A powerful drama written, produced and directed by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Shaft), Baby Boy stars music superstars Tyrese Gibson and Snoop Dogg (Half Baked, I Got The Hook-Up). With knockout performances by Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible II, Pulp Fiction) and A.J. Johnson (House Party, Friday), it's an honest, tough and unflinching look at modern urban life. Jody (Gibson) is a 20-year-old African American in South Central L.A. who is trying to live life large but doesn't have a job. He's got two babies by two different women and still lives at home with his mother (Johnson). Growing up is tough on Jody, but a series of events involving his mother's new boyfriend Melvin (Rhames), his girlfriend Yvette (Taraji P. Henson) and her ex-con ex-boyfriend Rodney (Dogg) force him to learn some hard lessons about living, loving and surviving as a man in the hood.
"...heartfelt and personal as it attempts to deal with something real..." Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"...a powerful, compassionate and tough-minded critique of contemporary black manhood." A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"...Baby Boy leaves you shaken." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"...easily Singleton's best movie since Boyz N the Hood..." Jeffrey Lyons, NBC-TV New York
Editor's Note
Director John Singleton (BOYZ IN THE HOOD, SHAFT) revisits to South Central L.A. with BABY BOY. Former Calvin Klein model Tyrese Gibson stars as Jody, a smooth-talking but immature black male who has children from two different women. One of them, Yvette (Taraji P. Henson), wants him to be faithful and move in with her, but Jody prefers his room at Mom's (A.J. Johnson) house, and his life of aimless womanizing and hanging out with neighborhood pal Sweet Pea (Omar Gooding). However, this childhood paradise seems about to destruct with the arrival of Mom's new ex-con boyfriend, Melvin (Ving Rhames). And when a dangerous former lover of Yvette's (Snoop Doggy Dogg in a nicely unsympathetic performance) gets out of jail and moves back in, the stage is set for Jody to either stand up like a man, or die in the attempt.Singleton tells the story in a series of vibrant vignettes, and though he supplies plenty of crowd-pleasing sex and violence, the focus remains on his characters. A rich score of old and new rap and R&B gives the film a nice boost, and Rhames is superb as the aging former thug trying to find happiness with Jody's mom.
| Features | Music Videos | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selections | | Theatrical Trailers | | Filmographies | | Production Notes | | Storyboard Comparisons | | Deleted And Alternate Scenes | | Outtakes And Bloopers Reel | | Subtitles: English, French, Chinese, Korean, Thai | | John Singleton Commentary | | Cinemax Featurette | | Widescreen And Fullscreen Versions | | Digitally Mastered Audio & Anamorphic Video | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2-Channel Dolby Surround, French |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Columbia Tri-Star |
| Release Date: 10/4/2005 |
| Running Time: 130 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2001 | | Catalog ID: 06458 | | UPC: 00043396064584 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Korean, Thai, Chinese | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1/4:3 |
| Cast & Crew
|
| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...BABY BOY leaves you shaken....[Gibson and Snoop Dogg] give the film the power and potency of rap..." 07/19/2001 p.55USA Today
"...It lives, breathes and switches moods from humor to despair better than any American release this year..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars 06/27/2001 p.5D New York Times
"...BABY BOY earns credibility for its insights by moving beyond image and rhetoric....[Snoop Dogg's] performance is sly, menacing and disarmingly funny..." 06/27/2001 p.E3 Entertainment Weekly
"...Singleton's achievement is that he stages each moment with such an intricate and painful sense of what's going on inside Jody..." 07/13/2001 p.56 Variety
"...The characters are vibrant....Singleton's writing is skillful enough to make them come engagingly to life..." 07/09/2001 p.22 Los Angeles Times
"...Compelling....BABY BOY is heartfelt and personal..." 06/27/2001 p.1 Total Film
"...There are good performances throughout the cast..." 12/01/2001 p.91 James Berardinelli's ReelViews 8 of 10
...The movie's strength is that it is involving--a result that is in large part due to the vibrancy of the characters. Strong performances, many from largely unknown actors, abound... in its presentation of familiar issues, it is provocative and involving, and capable of holding an audience's attention...
|
| |
|
|
|
