I've just finished this film and I thought it was excellent. I've never read the book, and based on other people's comments it sounds like it might be a hard book to adapt for the screen, what with it (apparently) dealing with a lot of abstract issues. However, looking at this film from the standpoint of having never read the book I thought the story was brilliant, it engrossed me to the end. Mekhi Phifer was great, he played the part well, personally I thought he conveyed a wide range of emotions and all of them very well. There was some great character development, especially on the part of Delroy Lindo (another great performance).
Lee did a good job in his portrayal of the drug culture in the projects, as well as taking a look into the police's side of the story. The story interested me from the beginning and I didn't feel my interest waver once, in fact is grew steadily throughout the film. The images of dead bodies shown at the beginning made a strong starting point, and served as an immediate reminder that the themes dealt with in the film are occurring all the time.
On a side note, I thought the resemblance of Shorty's game 'Gansta' to today's GTA: San Andreas was pretty funny.
Lee did a good job in his portrayal of the drug culture in the projects, as well as taking a look into the police's side of the story. The story interested me from the beginning and I didn't feel my interest waver once, in fact is grew steadily throughout the film. The images of dead bodies shown at the beginning made a strong starting point, and served as an immediate reminder that the themes dealt with in the film are occurring all the time.
On a side note, I thought the resemblance of Shorty's game 'Gansta' to today's GTA: San Andreas was pretty funny.