'New Jack City': The best blaxploitation B-movie of the 90s

Wesley Snipes in New Jack City

New Jack City is a ridiculous movie -- in the best way. It's heavy-handed anti-drug message could only come out of the late 80s and early '90s. The "acting" of Ice-T is suspect at best and I don't know what the hell is going on with Mario Van Peebles' hair.

And yet this is one of the most quotable and well-liked "black" movies of its era, or any era for that matter.

It's essentially a blaxploitation movie that came about two decades after the genre's heyday. And it features the best, most charismatic role of Wesley Snipes' career in the legendary gangster villain Nino Brown.

His character is second only to Al Pacino's Scarface in hip-hop lore and it's easy to see why. He has no redeeming qualities, virtually no humanity, just effortless cool.

It's interesting to revisit this film now because we are in the midst of another so-called black movie renaissance, albeit one with more classy fare like 12 Years a Slave and Fruitvale Station.

The last time so many African-American-themed films dominated the landscape it was the early '90s, which New Jack City is a perfect time capsule of. And I'm not just talking about the Raiders' swag Ice-T wears. The movie is ambitious (perhaps to a fault) and it was also just one flavor of many. Black audiences could laugh at House Party, be moved by Boyz n the Hood and be excited by an updated cops and robbers flick like New Jack City.

By updated -- I mean the inclusion of subplots like Chris Rock's Pookie (a rare dramatic performance) trying to kick drugs, which looks hokey now, but was crucial to the film's appeal back in 1991. Sadly, and probably to the chagrin of Van Peebles (who was also the film's director), the movie's positive message is almost entirely forgotten some 23 years later.

It's Nino Brown's swagger and bravado that has stood the test of time. Lil Wayne namecheck's his drug den on his Tha Carter albums and young brothers who have never even seen the movie quote lines like "Sit your five dollar ass down before I make change."

Scarface, one of my all time favorite movies, was of course anti-drugs and crime too. Pacino's character is killed in an especially gruesome, prolonged way and yet, no one cares about that.

And the politics in New Jack City are far less subtle than anything in Scarface. Some scenes read like people reciting a New York Times op-ed. And the power of those moments have definitely been diluted.

Yet if you look past the specifying and "message" of the movie and enjoy it for pure entertainment value, it's a blast.

You've got the awesome soundtrack, cameos from folks like Fab 5 Freddy and Keith Sweat, plus that flashy party style of early-90s fashion -- a style that I definitely remember vividly from my childhood. Ironically some of the outfits in this movie could be perfect for a hipster trying to make a statement.

I wouldn't exactly call it a smart movie but it does have one element that stands out for its prescience. Nino Brown projects Pacino's Scarface in his crib and he even quotes him. This film appeared to capture the real gangster emulating fake gangsters aesthetic which is both very real and insidious.

It you're my age (31) or older and from the Tri-State area, this is a perfect, occasionally campy, trip down memory lane.