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Gold Medal Software - Volume 3 (Gold Medal) (1994).iso
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1994-02-27
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┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SUGAR HILL: Leon Ichaso, director. Barry Michael │
│ Cooper, screenplay. Starring Wesley Snipes, Michael │
│ Wright, Theresa Randle, Clarence Williams III, Abe │
│ Vigoda, Ernie Hudson, Leslie Uggams, Larry Joshua, │
│ Steve J. Harris, and Khandi Alexander. Twentieth │
│ Century Fox. Rated R. │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Roemello Skuggs is a Harlem drug dealer tied by "time, fear,
and greed," to the people who tore his family apart in SUGAR HILL,
from director Leon Ichaso and NEW JACK CITY screenwriter, Barry
Michael Cooper. Wesley Snipes returns to fine form in this film,
especially after the near-awful PASSENGER 57, BOILING POINT,
RISING SUN, and the fun-but-fair DEMOLITION MAN. He fills a role
that he does all too well and practically no one else can touch.
Though Roemello is nowhere near as vicious as the drug lord he
played in NEW JACK CITY, Snipes carries him with the same inten-
sity, and gives him the same ruthlessness when the situation
dictates. In essence, it's almost the same character, but now he
has a conscience. Roemy has a stronger feeling of being trapped
by his situation, though, and desperately wants out. Bad. And
if he's not careful, that's the way he's gonna go. Roemy's
partner, Gus Molino (Abe Vigoda, and it's great to see him back
on screen), wants to carve out part of Roemello's turf for a new
talent, Lolly (Ernie Hudson), a prizefighter turned street-
hustler. Lolly doesn't want to be a silent partner, if you know
what I mean, and I know you do.
Roemy's had it. He can't get his mother's death from bad
heroin out of his mind. His father screwed up his own life by
losing Gus' drug money. Clarence Williams III plays the senior
Skuggs, and damn if it isn't great to see him back, too. Add to
these troubles an unstable older brother (Michael Wright, in
arguably the film's strongest performance, behind Snipes and
Williams) who wants a piece of Roemy's territory for himself, and
can you blame him for wanting out? Would you stay?
The portrait of the modern-day gangster set against the
decay of Harlem is finely drawn; Roemy himself wants to escape
the very decline that drugs have wrought on his neighborhood, the
decline that he's helped to cause. Feeding his need for escape is
his new-found love for a young actress, Melissa (Theresa Randle).
Scenes between Snipes and Vigoda almost play like old-time
gangster pictures, with everything old being made new again.
Even Lolly's connection to prizefighting and meetings held in his
gym evoke the classic cops-n-robbers pictures of the '40s. If I
have to fault SUGAR HILL on something, it's the lack of visible
law-enforcement figures. It's too easy for today's audiences to
identify with gangbangers. At one point, after Lolly has hit a
member of Roemy's gang (that's something else that's great about
this picture, the revival of classic gangster words like "hit"
and "gat"), Raynathan pulls out a gun during a rooftop meeting
and says, "This is the only number Lolly needs to understand:
nine millimeters." Some audience members shouted approval at
Raynathan, which bothered me. We've become so inured to
violence, on the screen and in our streets, that even when a
despicable bad guy pulls a gun, the audience cheers. Of course,
I felt that same thrill when Al Capone's mob pulled out their
Tommy-guns in THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE (1967), so maybe
I'm just being an old grump here.
Ichason creates a stylish look with the very first shots of
SUGAR HILL: archive photos of Harlem dissolving to '90s Harlem,
then a shot of Snipes in bed, remembering his mother's death.
It's all set to a sexy, smoky Terence Blanchard soundtrack, a
wistful jazz score that sounds influenced by Bernard Herrmann's
soundtrack for Martin Scorcese's TAXI DRIVER (1976). As Roemy
gets out of bed, the layout of his sumptuous-by-Harlem standards
shows how trapped he is. The camera shoots down the length of a
very narrow hallway, and tracks Roemy as he walks to a mirror
covering the hall's end. He's trapped, all right, but he's the
only one to blame for it.
I was disappointed by several clichéd elements (Roemy's
drive to achieve, shown in flashback as a full scholarship to
Georgetown University, despite his broken home life; taking his
first step down the wrong path by acing the thug who shot his
father; and a cop on the take who happens to be Gus' son. Over-
all, SUGAR HILL is a dramatic statement on the power of drugs and
loyalty in '90s Harlem.
RATING: $$$