Baby Boy (Special Edition) - Babyphone Discounters

This movie is truthful. As much as we would hate to believe it, but relationships with your parents and your significant other is just like that with most people. There’s usually always drama With urban people. Not to say that it’s not that way with suburban people, but for some reason we “urban folks” almost always make the news. Anyhow Tyrese did a good job as Jody and I was quite suprised. He potrayed a lazy son, a decietful baby’s daddy and a young man who had somewhat of a desire to do better, just caught up in temptation. His mother Addrienne Joi Johnson did a fair job, she looked rather young to be his mom, but isn’t that truly the way it is. She didn’t seem very supportive as a mom, but her part was to give some advice and to stand her ground on having a man in her life played by Ving Rhames. Tyrese main girl Taraji P. Henson did an excellent job playing her part as his baby’s mom and the girl he truly cared for. We as women feel just like she did when it comes to a man we love, we want them to do right by us and if they dont, we express ourselves. We want them to leave if they cant act right, but we give them numerous chances to straighten up. This movie has numerous sex scenes, violence and profanity, not for the little ones it’s truly an adult film. This movies has a pleasant ending. Check it out!

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John Singleton’s movies typically seem to drift between the essential and pointless, and his latest, “Baby Boy,” which revisits the south-central Los Angeles neighborhood he chronicled in his breakthrough film, “Boyz N The Hood,” is no different. So much of it works, and works well, that the entire scenes and subplots that have no place burn all the much more.

The movie presents itself as a critique of young black men in America, who, as the film’s opening narration states, have been “infantilized” by white racism. But it’s not meant as a jumping-off point to chronicle race relations, but to show this infantile state is willingly embraced, and used as a womb, of sorts, to refuse responsibility.

Singleton introduces Jody, firmly played by newcomer Tyrese Gibson, as a 20-year-old father of two still living with his mother and doing what he can to avoid work and coast comfortably. He eventually embarks on a career, which involves stealing clothes off the rack and selling them wholesale.

But that doesn’t stop Jody from living off the mother of one of his children Yvette (Taraji P. Henson), who loves Jody enough to let him ruin her life, if he sticks around long enough. Much of “Baby Boy” involves just how much she’ll put up with, when she’ll stop putting up with it, and what sort of ominous “get out” message she’ll send when she does – not exactly an original setup.

But to Singleton’s credit, he delivers several personal, poignant scenes that emphasize the love in their relationship, which makes the flip side of Jody irresponsibility seem all the more foolish. Unlike the director’s “Poetic Justice,” which portrayed romance without a pulse, “Baby Boy” gives reason to care, and invest.

That subplot runs parallel with that of Jody’s home life with mother Juanita (Adrienne Joi-Johnson) barely old enough to be Jody’s mom, and new boyfriend Melvin, played by Ving Rhames in one of those intense performances that changes the chemistry when he enters. Both Juanita and Melvin, while still young, have been around the hard-time block, and want a smoother ride this time. Jody blocks it, in a way, by pushing the threat of his getting booted from the house closer and closer to surface, until it explodes, sadly, in the worst way possible.

In fact, much of “Baby Boy” is sad. True, but still. Henson evokes a quiet sadness and resignation as Yvette, and has a scene, directly after an argument and smack dab in the midst of a strange makeup, where all of insecure fears (Singleton subtly shows her sucking her thumb throughout the movie) roil to the surface. And when she does boot Jody, her life doesn’t improve, as an ex-con boyfriend, played in suave, pot-ridden calm by Snoop Dogg, arrives on the doorstep, looking for sexual hospitality.

Snoop Dogg’s character, Rodney, and the rapper’s presence at all, signify a traditional flaw of Singleton movies to work in black music and modeling stars who lack the requisite acting chops to fill out a role. Only Ice Cube, among his denizens, made the leap well.

Snoop Dogg is counted on to drive the third act of the movie, and he can’t, especially in scenes where Rodney is called to be menacing. Singleton includes pointless scenes, such as Snoop driving, Snoop smoking a blunt and Snoop snapping his fingers to old school Al Green. The last scene has a mark of reticent cool to it (indeed, so cool it’s in the trailer) and has the mark of the star’s improvisational kickin’ it mode.

But Rodney’s presence puts a weird spin on the final half hour, and it doesn’t quite work, as Jody and best friend Sweet Pea (Omar Gooding, a little too Cuba) aim to settle the score. And there’s a scene where the two chase down a group of young thugs, then beat up them one-by-one, that took the audience in the opposite direction Singleton intended them to go. In short, a lot of scenes meant as menacing fall short into slight comedy, and only Rhames serves up bad…bluster on cue every time.

Still, when “Baby Boy” sticks to Jody and Yvette, there’s a real story. Henson, in her first significant role, shows chops to stay around for awhile. And Tyrese, as he’s known in the music world, is more than serviceable. He plays both sides of emotional spectrum like he’s been there before, and his Jody is an anchor of self-angst and pity that not only characterizes young black America in LA, but every race, right here, right now, wherever. Jody needs to grow up. Most of us do.

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I saw this movie when it was released and not again till last night. I was a fan of John Singleton’s work and understood from interviews that his movies up to this point were his own “triology” of Black male life experiences in South Central L.A. This movie touched on a lot of ills in the Black community but didn’t offer solutions tied up in a bow at the movie’s end so to me it is an episodic few weeks in the life of one character, Jody aka “Baby Boy”.

After my second viewing this isn’t a movie that I’d add to my favorite list or that I want to see in entirety again though I would probably watch my favorite scenes from time to time. The pacing of the movie seems uneven to me – it was moving along fine until the Snoop character “Rodney” bogarts his way into Yvette’s apartment after his release from jail during the final third of the movie. Clearly the character was only introduced to add tension to the story but I wonder how it would’ve turned out if Singleton had just focused on the factors and/or experiences that Jody faces during the movie that might have caused him to grow up and be a man and real father to his children and left the gangster bs out.

Like another reviewer, I was a little dismayed that education is not stressed as an option for Jody and his cousin P but as in real life, people only promote what they know which is why Jody’s mom (AJ Johnson) stressed that he work but never suggested that he go to college.

I gave the disc 3 stars because I really enjoyed the special feature which I guess aired on Cinemax prior to the movie’s release. I enjoyed all of the actors’ comments regarding their characters and was surprised to hear Singleton state that he’d written this script for Tupac Shakur. Once I heard that statement, I couldn’t help but think about how different this movie would have been had he lived to portray this character…Tyrese was good in the role but Tupac would have been magnificent I believe.

One other positive factor for me is that there is excellent chemistry between the cast members so their performances are stronger & more believable – especially Tyrese/Ving Rhames and Tyrese/Taraji P. Henson.

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