New Jack City

New Jack City is convoluted, contrived, and heavy-handed, ending with a caption warning us to “confront the [drug] problem realistically, without empty slogans and promises”. Well, the characters in the movie certainly eschew empty slogans in favor of some of the most memorable catchphrases ever committed to film (“Sit your five-dollar ass down before I make change,” “I want to shoot you so bad, my d*ck's hard,” etc., etc.), but it might be a bit of a stretch to say that they deal with the problem realistically – and it’s actually the little things, such as our old friend the R...