Movie Review: Dead Presidents (1995)

Dead Presidents is a 1995 crime/thriller movie directed by the Hughes brothers. The film stars Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, Freddy Rodriguez, N'Bushe Wright, and Bokeem Woodbine. The movie focuses on the upbringing of Anthony (Tate) a young man who grows up in the bronx, has a love affair with a young lady, goes off to Vietnam against his parents desires, and returns to become involved in a heist during which he must paint his face a creepy white. I'll give the positives first..it's alright. This movie isn't horrible and that's due to the performances (which even though are off and on) do provide us with some interesting characters. Larenz Tate is easily the most relatable and engaging aspect of this film. I also really liked Keith David who ends up being a criminal mentor for young Anthony. While this film is entertaining throughout, I have to talk about what's bad about this film. Dead Presidents is essentially four different movies packed into two hours. The first chronicles Anthony's coming of age and life growing up in the bronx (which was my favorite), the second goes to Vietnam where we spend WAY too much time and it's not even that interesting, third is the return to the bronx where the movie loses the majority of it's steam as we're forced to watch a heist that we've no interest in, and finally our lead is arrested and that's where the film ends. Surprisingly this film is a great mess and I say 'surprisingly' because the Hughes brothers directed Menace II Society, which is a great film that I love and have virtually no flaws with. This movie is too many different ideas being forced into a film that's too short, and doesn't boast the correct amount of talent to carry this narrative. There are some really solid scenes in this movie. For example, I found the opening sequences with Anthony's job as a milk man to be an average and somewhat interesting start to this movie. There's also some factors in Dead Presidents that could go either way for me. Rose Jackson as Juanita was one of these elements. Her role as Anthony's girlfriend was fine to me. I could regard it as a functional performance, but I could also say that since I felt neutral on her character, she didn't sell the role well. Then there's the soundtrack. Now I'm a big music buff and this soundtrack contains The Temptations and The O'jays, but it doesn't always integrate those classic songs seamlessly. Sometimes the soundtrack was on point (like in the first club scene), but then at other times it just sort of plays in the background with no meaning (like Temptations music in Vietnam scene). It's a very mixed bag of a movie and what I felt at the end was a sort of relief and also a sense of missed potential. There's a good movie in here somewhere, a great one in fact, but there's too much packed into too little. A coming of age story, like in the beginning, would have been a more interesting route to take and I think coming off the heals of Menace II Society, that story line might've even made for a great film. Overall, Dead Presidents is messy, inconsistently acted, but there are good elements in here, they just have to be dug in order to be found. Two stars= C