Juice

Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, Juice follows four friends (Tupac Shakur’s Bishop, Omar Epps’ Quincy, Jermaine Hopkins’ Steel, and Khalil Kain’s Raheem) as they get caught up in the criminal lifestyle after a gun falls into their laps. Filmmaker Dickerson, working from a script written with Gerard Brown, delivers a rough-around-the-edges yet periodically spellbinding drama that benefits from its gritty atmosphere and top-tier performances, with, in terms of the latter, Shakur’s predominantly electrifying efforts as the volatile Bishop certainly playing an integral role in cementing the movie’s success. (Shakur is so good here, in fact, that the movie occasionally struggles to elevate itself up to his level.) And although Dickerson does an effective job of initially establishing each of the four protagonists and their less-than-savory environs, Juice progresses into a somewhat hit-and-miss midsection that seems to spend just a little too much time on certain far-from-enthralling elements (including, and especially, Quincy’s fledgling DJ antics). Such complaints are rendered moot in the face of a final third that packs far more of an engrossing, visceral punch than one might’ve anticipated, and there’s little doubt that Juice, which essentially transforms into a violent thriller in its closing stretch, ultimately stands as a solid debut for both Dickerson and Shakur.

*** out of ****