It's the movie that takes you right to the core of where the Devil himself conjures his plans – Hell's Kitchen. It is more than just a single story, and instead four closely related character arcs woven into one film. It traces the characters of Johnny (Mekhi Phifer), Gloria (Angelina Jolie), Patty (Johnny Whitworth), and Liz (Rosanna Arquette).It takes off with Johnny, Gloria and Patty doing a robbery that completely falls apart and results in the death of Gloria's younger brother. We then move forward five years and this is where the main arc of the film begins, initiated by what happened at the robbery. There are a lot of side characters with their own stories, such as an old Ex-boxer called Lou, and a young homeless boy called Ricky. The movie confronts a lot of social issues such as drug addiction, rape, murder, homelessness, theft, and the list goes on. As the four main character's stories intertwine, we see these issues dealt with in various ways and watch some function as catalysts for others.It relies more on a selected soundtrack as opposed to an original score, which works excellently as the songs (primarily from singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur) often possess special significance to the scenes they accompany. The movie is a little slow moving at times, and that in addition to a noticeably cheap production budget may make it difficult for some to sit through. Yet for those who are prepared to sit down and enter the confronting world of Hell's Kitchen, there is a raw, emotional, and even realistic drama ready to be appreciated.Overall a confronting, emotional, and insightful piece that is probably underrated due to cheap production and promotion. However the script does the characters great justice and the acting is brilliant, especially from the four leads. Definitely recommended, especially for Jolie fans. (Like myself!) I give it 7.5/10.John Hanlen.

This is certainly one of the best films I've seen lately. It's a good surprise, once it doesn't seem to be so good when you read about it. The plot is basic in the beginning, but it turns into a fascinating drama and a breath-taking thriller. Angelina Jolie is again very well in her role.The songs we hear all through the movie are very good. They're also a good reason to make this such a good film. We have a bit of everything here: rap, rock, folk... This is really something you can't miss. I have to talk about the direction too. I think it's brilliant and remarkable. my rate 8/10

I, along with a large chunk of the male population of this world, believe that Angelina Jolie is one of the most beautiful creatures on this green Earth (or quite brown in some drought ridden places such as our backyard) and have since become a fan of her movies. One night in a family video renting, I walked up the aisles of the video store trying to find something that grabbed my attention. In the Thriller section, I found many copies of this movie, and I question the judgement of the staff, as this is quite clearly a drama, and a pretty good one. Fortunately, I did not rent it out that night, as my Father would have had kittens if he let me watch this (for the record, I personally think I should have waited until I was a bit older), so I waited until he wasn't the one paying for it, and I got it then. Mekhi Phifer plays Jonny, a man who was involved in a robbery that went wrong, and as a result, an accomplice, Hayden is killed. Gloria (played -as usual- superbly by Angelina Jolie) was Hayden's sister, and confronts Jonny five years later after he gets out of jail, blaming him for the death of her brother. She asks her boyfriend, Patty, to kill Jonny, but for reasons that I shall not reveal, Patty knows that Jonny did not kill Hayden. Jonny settles back into Hell's Kitchen and trains to be a heavyweight champion. Some of the scenes are a bit too long, some are a bit disturbing, some are a bit weird, and some of them have all these things mixed together. But on the whole a good movie, but not one made for younger audiences. 8/10p.s. I might not be a good judge of the pacing of this movie, because when I watched it, we had younger visitors, and they weren't allowed to watch it, so I had to keep stopping and starting it, which is a shocking way to watch a movie.

I have always been intrigued with the acting skills of Mekhi Phifer ever since Spike Lee's brilliant Clockers, that's why I remotely enjoyed this film. The cast all around gave good preformances. The problem with it was definetly the way it was filmed and a contadictory message. Actually, there was no message at all, or else it was one burried in clichés. It was exactly like every other "New York-former-gangster" movie, and it had nothing special going for it (as apposed to Clockers, which had a whole underlying plot line to it). No message about Hell's Kitchen at all. This movie was pure mediocracy.C-