Dead Presidents (1995)

Starring Larenz Tate, Chris Tucker, and Terrence Howard. If GoodFellas was the motivation behind the Hughes brother’s first film, then The Deer Hunter was an obvious source behind this one.  This film starts off as a well told coming of age story, moves into some fairly well done war combat sequences, and ends up in an adrenaline driven armored car heist.  But despite all that it has going for it, it struggles somewhere in the character department. Visually we like what we see, but aren’t really waiting on pins and needles for the outcome. The Hughes’ said in an interview that the project didn’t really feel strong from the beginning.  They agree that as filmmakers, they probably weren’t mature enough for what the story demanded.  Oh, and here’s the story.  It’s about a young black man growing up in the Bronx who decides to enlist and go off to fight in Vietnam. When he comes back he finds a job and gets married, but the life he tries to lead starts to fall apart and he has to resort to small time crime to make end’s meat. He and a group of childhood friends devise a plan to sabotage an armored car full of money that has been commissioned to be destroyed. Enter the adrenaline driven heist which is really the most memorable part of the film. All in all, it’s a pretty good film.

Runtime 117 minutes. (Written and directed by Allen and Albert)