"...you know, I'm also from 'The Hood'..."

So, taking a different approach to this blog entry, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about myself.

I myself grew up in SoCal in the early 90s and I definitely remember all of these types of experiences, portrayed in this film. It's a bit hilarious to think that I could almost have a root in that culture. In fact, I would hear stories from family members present at and around the time of my birth, that mostly included gang activity, stereotyping, drugs, and sex. The coolest thing, i think is the story of my mother witnessing gang activity and then experiencing the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake, all on the same day. You know all those famous pictures of that viaduct thing collapsing, trapping all of those cars and people? my mom was there somewhere, pregnant with me; she was safe outside the viaduct, thank goodness.

What sucks is that my own personal accounts of the early 90s, in general, is a bit fuzzy. Specific memories i really remember is like, the song "The Sign" by Ace of Base, the film Interview with a Vampire, and the first Casper movie starring a young Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman. That's about it.

Anyways, on to the film...

Getting over the fact that it was really dark, I think it was an awesome film, awesome, in the literal sense, that i was in awe. The music, the food, the clothes, everything, definitely came back to me. I found myself humming along whenever we heard music, laughing whenever i saw obvious 90s fashion, and felt a bit melancholy when i saw the food and such at the welcome home party. It took me back to another part of my life. My favorite and most strongest memory is walking down a sidewalk and hearing hip hop coming from houses and passing cars, a definite feature in the film.

one particular scene that caused me to stop and think was the scene where everyone takes Ricky's dead body home, causing everyone to scream and cry. Ricky and Doughboy's mother turns and cries hysterically in Doughboy's arms and then switches to anger and screams, "You did it! You did it!"

What i found most interesting is that, obviously, HE didn't kill him, but essentially, the TYPE OF PEOPLE Doughboy figuratively represents and generally models himself after, did. I thought that that was an interesting point.

"Good, fellas..."

I really liked this film. i mean, hands down, it is really good.

Just like what henry was trying to explain in the film, we as the audience, side and root for the bad guy. (he was talking about jimmy by the way.) but regardless, yes, i did want the "bad guys" to win and conquer every situation that was thrown at them, but a part of me wanted henry out of it.i felt like henry didn't deserve a lot of the consequences and bad situations that he got sucked into.

One character, the only character, i didn't like was tommy. he was too cocky and a lot of his decisions doesn't seem justified, just like what was said in class. his ego was too large. i did not like his character.

What I really liked was the scenes near the end of the film revolving around henry and cocaine. Throughout those scenes, I thought he was just hallucinating the whole "helicopter" thing. That surprised me. i laughed really hard, in my head of course, when the police were there. i was wrong. henry was not hallucinating. haha