Starring: Jamie Foxx, Lynn Whitfield, CCH Pounder, Brenden Richard Jefferson
TV movie: FX
The year was 1971. It was the year that 17-year-old Stanly "Tookie" Williams started the Crips street gang in South Central Los Angeles. His intent was not to have a violent gang, but to have a gang for which him and his friends could stand up for themselves and their community in a non-violent way.
The gang turns violent after more gangs are created and they can't bond together and unite as a whole. Thousands of lives are lost and thousands of lives are put into rival gangs.
Tookie is convicted of several murders as a young man and is sentenced to death. Barbara Becnel is a journalist with a son in college who she is worried about turning into a gangsta. She becomes one of Tookie's best friends while he's on Death Row and helps him get a book deal for children's books.
Tookie has been nominated for 3 Nobel Peace prizes and continues to tell children to stay out of gangs and not to follow his route through his writing. He is still on Death Row at San Quentin to this date.
This is not the average gangsta movie. It was made for TV and doesn't have the usual amount of swearing and violence as you may see in other movies of its' type. There's lots of dialogue and reminiscing, so it's important that the viewer watches at all times. It would probably pass as PG-13 if it were released into theatres. -Pat
7.5/10
TV movie: FX
The year was 1971. It was the year that 17-year-old Stanly "Tookie" Williams started the Crips street gang in South Central Los Angeles. His intent was not to have a violent gang, but to have a gang for which him and his friends could stand up for themselves and their community in a non-violent way.
The gang turns violent after more gangs are created and they can't bond together and unite as a whole. Thousands of lives are lost and thousands of lives are put into rival gangs.
Tookie is convicted of several murders as a young man and is sentenced to death. Barbara Becnel is a journalist with a son in college who she is worried about turning into a gangsta. She becomes one of Tookie's best friends while he's on Death Row and helps him get a book deal for children's books.
Tookie has been nominated for 3 Nobel Peace prizes and continues to tell children to stay out of gangs and not to follow his route through his writing. He is still on Death Row at San Quentin to this date.
This is not the average gangsta movie. It was made for TV and doesn't have the usual amount of swearing and violence as you may see in other movies of its' type. There's lots of dialogue and reminiscing, so it's important that the viewer watches at all times. It would probably pass as PG-13 if it were released into theatres. -Pat
7.5/10