[255D[8C[0;34mĿ
[8C   [1;33mSUGAR HILL:  [32mLeon Ichaso, director.  Barry Michael[6C[0;34m
[8C   [1;32mCooper, screenplay.  Starring Wesley Snipes, Michael    [0;34m
[8C   [1;32mWright, Theresa Randle, Clarence Williams III, Abe[6C[0;34m
[8C   [1;32mVigoda, Ernie Hudson, Leslie Uggams, Larry Joshua,[6C[0;34m
[8C   [1;32mSteve J. Harris, and Khandi Alexander.  Twentieth[7C[0;34m
[8C   [1;32mCentury Fox.  Rated R.[34C[0;34m
[8C

[10C[1;36mRoemello Skuggs is a Harlem drug dealer tied by "time, fear,
[5Cand greed," to the people who tore his family apart in [33mSUGAR HILL[36m,
[5Cfrom director Leon Ichaso and [33mNEW JACK CITY [36mscreenwriter, Barry
[5CMichael Cooper.  Wesley Snipes returns to fine form in this film,
[5Cespecially after the near-awful [33mPASSENGER 57[36m, [33mBOILING POINT[36m,
[5C[33mRISING SUN[36m, and the fun-but-fair [33mDEMOLITION MAN[36m.  He fills a role
[5Cthat he does all too well and practically no one else can touch.
[5CThough Roemello is nowhere near as vicious as the drug lord he
[5Cplayed in [33mNEW JACK CITY[36m, Snipes carries him with the same inten-
[5Csity, and gives him the same ruthlessness when the situation
[5Cdictates.  In essence, it's almost the same character, but now he
[5Chas a conscience.  Roemy has a stronger feeling of being trapped
[5Cby his situation, though, and desperately wants out.  Bad.  And
[5Cif he's not careful, that's the way he's gonna go.  Roemy's
[5Cpartner, Gus Molino (Abe Vigoda, and it's great to see him back
[5Con screen), wants to carve out part of Roemello's turf for a new
[5Ctalent, Lolly (Ernie Hudson), a prizefighter turned street-
[5Chustler.  Lolly doesn't want to be a silent partner, if you know
[5Cwhat I mean, and I know you do.

[10CRoemy's had it.  He can't get his mother's death from bad
[5Cheroin out of his mind.  His father screwed up his own life by
[5Closing Gus' drug money.  Clarence Williams III plays the senior
[5CSkuggs, and damn if it isn't great to see him back, too.  Add to
[5Cthese troubles an unstable older brother (Michael Wright, in
[5Carguably the film's strongest performance, behind Snipes and
[5CWilliams) who wants a piece of Roemy's territory for himself, and
[5Ccan you blame him for wanting out?  Would you stay?

[10CThe portrait of the modern-day gangster set against the
[5Cdecay of Harlem is finely drawn; Roemy himself wants to escape
[5Cthe very decline that drugs have wrought on his neighborhood, the
[5Cdecline that he's helped to cause.  Feeding his need for escape is
[5Chis new-found love for a young actress, Melissa (Theresa Randle).
[5CScenes between Snipes and Vigoda almost play like old-time
[5Cgangster pictures, with everything old being made new again.
[5CEven Lolly's connection to prizefighting and meetings held in his
[5Cgym evoke the classic cops-n-robbers pictures of the '40s.  If I
[5Chave to fault [33mSUGAR HILL [36mon something, it's the lack of visible
[5Claw-enforcement figures.  It's too easy for today's audiences to
[5Cidentify with gangbangers.  At one point, after Lolly has hit a
[5Cmember of Roemy's gang (that's something else that's great about
[5Cthis picture, the revival of classic gangster words like "hit"
[5Cand "gat"), Raynathan pulls out a gun during a rooftop meeting
[5Cand says, "This is the only number Lolly needs to understand:
[5Cnine millimeters."  Some audience members shouted approval at
[5CRaynathan, which bothered me.  We've become so inured to
[5Cviolence, on the screen and in our streets, that even when a
[5Cdespicable bad guy pulls a gun, the audience cheers.  Of course,
[5CI felt that same thrill when Al Capone's mob pulled out their
[5CTommy-guns in [33mTHE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE [36m([37m1967[36m), so maybe
[5CI'm just being an old grump here.

[10CIchason creates a stylish look with the very first shots of
[5CSUGAR HILL:  archive photos of Harlem dissolving to '90s Harlem,
[5Cthen a shot of Snipes in bed, remembering his mother's death.
[5CIt's all set to a sexy, smoky Terence Blanchard soundtrack, a
[5Cwistful jazz score that sounds influenced by Bernard Herrmann's
[5Csoundtrack for Martin Scorcese's [33mTAXI DRIVER [36m([37m1976[36m).  As Roemy
[5Cgets out of bed, the layout of his sumptuous-by-Harlem standards
[5Cshows how trapped he is.  The camera shoots down the length of a
[5Cvery narrow hallway, and tracks Roemy as he walks to a mirror
[5Ccovering the hall's end.  He's trapped, all right, but he's the
[5Conly one to blame for it.

[10CI was disappointed by several clichd elements (Roemy's
[5Cdrive to achieve, shown in flashback as a full scholarship to
[5CGeorgetown University, despite his broken home life; taking his
[5Cfirst step down the wrong path by acing the thug who shot his
[5Cfather; and a cop on the take who happens to be Gus' son.  Over-
[5Call, [33mSUGAR HILL [36mis a dramatic statement on the power of drugs and
[5Cloyalty in '90s Harlem.

[5C[32mRATING:  [37m$$$[0m
