| Even when it misses a dramatic opportunity in favor of generic action, Set It Off benefits from a sharp understanding of its well-drawn central characters. They're a quartet of young African American women in Los Angeles (Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise), all struggling against a system that seems designed to prevent them from realizing their dreams. The movie establishes their plight with credible attention to emotional detail, making their decision to rob banks believable enough to give the ensuing plot its inevitably tragic momentum. Cowritten by the screenwriter of What's Love Got to Do With It?, the film conveys genuine compassion for its characters, and the ensemble cast is uniformly strong--especially Queen Latifah as a brash lesbian whose fate is as certain as her forceful attitude. Set It Off expresses a real sense that these women have been close friends for years, and that gives the film additional impact, even when their transition to crime and violence feels somewhat forced and superficial. A romantic subplot involving Pinkett and a social-climbing banker (Blair Underwood) is too contrived to be convincing, and director F. Gary Gray (Friday) tries too hard to combine hard-hitting action with social relevance (a weakness shared by Gray's following film, The Negotiator). Still, Set It Off effectively avoids passing judgment; its emotional complexity transcends simple notions of right and wrong, injecting vitality--and a kind of renegade integrity--into the traditions of a familiar plot. --Jeff Shannon |
|
 Jada,Vivica,Kimberly and Queen set this thing off!! |
| Review Date: September 20, 2001 |
| Reviewer: I. Allison, Sacramento, CA United States |
| Four Black women struggling with trying to keep afloat and fighting off the biting sharks of poverty: One a single mother, another a single woman raising her only sibling: a brother, another who was wrongfully terminated from her position as a bank teller after a robbery-gone-bad, and another just fed up with her position working for Luther, the foul-mouthed owner of his own janitorial company. For each of their own individual reason, they all band together and decide to pull their own bank heist. Disguised in wigs and clear masks, they coolly and calmly walk into banks and demand money. To make matters more complicated, Stoney {Pinkett} meets and begins to fall for a branch manager played by Blair Underwood. While working for Luther, the discover he runs out with their money, and now they have to "hit" the bank one more time. With the police hot on their trail, the ill-conceived robberies fly out of control. This movie is filled with emotion, honesty, and a tragic ending. Guest appearances by Dr Dre as Black Sam and Dub-C as one of the bank robbers. This movie is a real crowd pleaser!!! |
It's da bomb
|
| Review Date: June 8, 2000 |
| Reviewer: , |
| Ah man when I first saw this movie I watched it like 3 times the first night. I mean it's da bomb I mean you know how they always have the movies where the men do the wild and bad things and the women are just these stupid girls who sleep with them to get money, but gary layed the rules down in this movie,and showed people that men aren't the only ones who can be bad women can do anything men can do probably even better. You see how good these girls were I mean they was just doing they thang, but it was sad at the end, because spooney(jada pinkett) was the only one left and she was rememberin what they did earlier in the movie while they were robbing banks, and everybody got killed at the end except for her. That was soo sad but I do agree her relationship with blair underwood was a one night stand and it did kind of drag the movie but that was the only mistake otherwise this movie is off the hook if you haven't seen it yet you betta run to the video store and get it now because you missing out on a lot. |
The Best Movie I've ever seen
|
| Review Date: October 22, 2007 |
| Reviewer: M. Erilus, West Park, FL USA |
A great movie with a great cast, this movie shows what can happen when you push a black woman to her last straw. From the beginning to the end this movie shows how easily one can be profiled as a criminal just by the company she keeps. Like how one of the characters were surrounded and killed by the SWAT team just because he had the same hair cut as one of the bank robbers. And he was a soon-to-be college student. There is a lot of emotions shown in this movie when the it takes you into each characters personal life and thier reasons for robbing the bank. Don't get me wrong there are no reasons for committing a crime like a bank robbery but their stories are compelling. The ending is sad, even though there was a bright side to the ending. It kind've teaches you a lesson about friendship and material things.
The acting was fantastic, you almost felt like the characters were real individuals(of course that is the point of acting). Queen, Jada, Kimberly, and Vivic really make this movie come to life. I would watch this movie all day everyday, just because it's so great. |
This movie is positivly THE movie of the '90s!
|
| Review Date: July 7, 1999 |
| Reviewer: , |
| I thought that the movie would be another 'Waiting to Exhale' and a friend of mine said to me "This movie is great, you have to watch it!" I thought that I would give it a try. Watching it one night the movie made such an impact on me that I was crying from almost the begining credits. I think that the charactors are ones that people can identify with and feel sorry for... I especially thought that Jada Pinkett Smith played her role with brillience and Queen LaTefa played her role stunningly. I was quite moved by Cleo, she had real class. All in all a great movie... a must for all people with hearts!! |
Set It Off Review
|
| Review Date: August 8, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Lp Raphotle, South Africa |
| The is the best movie I have ever seen dealing with the following themes: Friendship, Loyalty and Trust. Even though the movie is about crime, these themes dominate the plot. The girls' commitment to each other and loyalty to their cause is very impressive. Also the director of the movie deals with these themes in a easy, playful and humourous manner, even though the girls' couse is a risky and dangerous one. This keeps the audience interested. There is no dull moment or lousy scene in this movie. |
|
No details are available for this product
No video reviews found for this product.
