Baby Boy (2001)

Jody is a unemployed immature young man who isn't committed to anything or anyone but himself. He has two children out of wedlock he does not financially support. He leeches off his mother living at home. He tries to act like a gangster in the streets. That act does not fool anyone in his neighborhood. He's thought of as soft. His mother takes up with a veteran gangster called Mel. Jody feels left out as Mel becomes the man of the house. Mel tries to school Jody on how to be a real man. Jody doesn't take the lesson. Mel and Jody have a fight. It's like when a older stronger lion chases a weaker younger out the pride to fend for themselves. Jody is out on his own.He shacks up with one of his kids moms. She has some kind of relationship with a hard core gangster that beens in prison called Rodney. When Rodney comes home he causes problems for Jody. It's time for Jody to be a man and face this hard core gangster. Jody unable to kill him only wounds him, but it sends a strong enough message he will protect his own. Shook up and scared he turns to Mel who without words understands what Jody is going through. Mel uses his street mentality to put Jody back together and calm him. The two share a bond now. Jody leaves his mother's house to become a man on his own with one of his mother's children. The one he loves.Tyrese Gibson was stellar as Jody. Great performance. As a viewer I got caught up in his story because I thought he was an immature punk at times and felt sorry for him other times when Mel and Rodney backed him down. Ving Rhames gave a powerful showing as Mel. When he has Jody in a headlock letting him know what he would do to a weak man in prison was real to the bone. Ving Rhames commands every part he is in. Snoop Dogg was low down dirty Rodney. Snoop Dogg's best acting I've seen. He owned that part. He played the bad guy to perfection.John Singleton's best movie. Much better than Boyz n the Hood. More real and powerful with heart. I expected Mel was going to have to deal with Rodney. Singleton did not go that route and out smarted this viewer.

Part semi-serious Gangster movie, part domestic life in the hood, I found it pretty entertaining. Vang and Snoop, with their borderline psychopathic personalities, round out the movie nicely. There are also some great comedic moments. For example one young gangster wanna-be hood rat needs to answer for his disrespect, but shows "heart" so he's told he won't be punched in the face. Instead he immediately gets belt whipped and screams like, well like a kid getting whipped with a belt. Little nuggets like this made me bust out laughing. (The best kind of comedy is funny because it is, not because it's pointed out to you that it's supposed to be funny.) A little more tame than "Menace II Society" it has the same quirky feel with moments that just ring true.

Sociologists would have a field day with this film. Given the current state of things, it's amazing that African-Americans have not picketed this film due to its extremely negative stereotyping of black life in America.Black men are depicted as shiftless tramps, hustlers and just general low-lives. Ditto for women.The language here is absolutely disgusting to say the least. You can't get through a sentence without b and f bombs being hurled at each other.How old is Tyrese Gibson's mom in this film? She must have had him when she was 14 or so.How horrible that the killing is never solved by police officials.These negative things being said, our sociologists would view this film positively claiming that it gives an adequate description of black life.Where are our so called black activists in protesting this film? I thought I was back in the New York City classroom or other large urban school setting. What a disgusting film to show to all groups. Talk of reviving of racial prejudice, this was really off the wall.

Baby boy is the story of a young man, who apparently like many others in the inner-city, refuses to accept the duties and responsibilities of adulthood. He doesn't wish to "leave the nest" as his mother suggests he do in an early scene. Jody Summers, played by the charismatic Tyrese Gibson, is a representation for the kind of man Singleton wishes to indict with his film. Jody is twenty years old. He still lives with his mother, he has no steady job, he has children with two different women (that we know of), no car.... the list goes on. We see an intelligence within the young man that at times wants to bubble to the surface, but always seems to get stifled by bad decisions that usually involve women.In the first scene, we see Jody pick up his main-stay girlfriend (Taraji P. Henson) from the abortion clinic. After bringing her home and lovingly tucking her into bed, he's off with her car to visit the mother of another of his children. Jody really gets around with the ladies. But instead of marrying one of them or at least moving in with them, he prefers to live at home with his mother. One day there is great big surprise waiting at home when he arrives. His mother his a new man (Ving Rhames), and the two are crazy about each other. Melvin, a reformed criminal, intends to move in, and that leaves Jody feeling the pressure to move out and start an adult life of his own. Things are also complicated by the release from prison of Snoop Dog. He is a former boyfriend of Jody's woman, and he shows up at her place uninvited and looking for trouble.The film is a series of fights (both verbal and physical), make-up sessions, explicit sex, shootings, and thoughtful insight. The film is cast to perfection, and the pacing is without peer for this type of film. At 130 minutes, the film never outstays its welcome. There is a ton of profanity, and acrimony between the major players. Will Jody decide to grow up and marry the woman he loves? Will he ever see eye to eye with his mother's new boyfriend? Will Snoop Dogg get what's coming to him? Let's just say that things end up happy on most counts. I wish, along with Director John Singleton, that there would be more happy endings in the lives of these kinds of people.These characters, and the world they live in, are as far from anything I've ever experienced in my own lifetime as they could be. It is a credit to John Singleton that he could make me care so much about them in this terrific film. The film made a decent profit at the theater, and will continue to be appreciated for years on the DVD market.8 of 10 stars.The Hound.