Menace II Society

Albert Hughes, 1993

Spine #1105

Picked by 4 guests

Drama / Crime / Thriller

Criterion TMDB

Directed by Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes

Written by Tyger Williams

Cinematography Lisa Rinzler

Edited by Christopher Koefoed

Cast Tyrin Turner, Larenz Tate, Glenn Plummer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, June Kyoto Lu, Toshi Toda, Reginald Ballard

Picked by

Wyclef Jean actor

“Menace II Society, the Hughes brothers. They always say film is an expression of self. So I would say with this, Menace II Society was us. It was, like, the community. We got a chance to see our Faces. And this is big for us because it was like our actual culture was on screen, our Shakespearean slang, ghetto, twisted language, people flipping the lingo. At the same time, we saw the reality of how something can go from being so beautiful to being tragic.”

Wyclef Jean

Neal Brennan actor

“Menace II Society. Allen and Albert Hughes. I now am buddies with Allen. He told me an anecdote about this movie one time that at one point it was so bad, he had a rag in his car to wipe tears with. It was, he would just go to editing. It sucked. And he would drive home and cry the entire way... And it's actually a good, like, lesson in filmmaking... Just the parts of the movie that were good were like spread, like manifest destiny of quality.”

Neal Brennan

John David Washington and Malcolm Washington actor

“Definitely going with Menace II Society here. Actually, I learned a lot from Allen Hughes. The influence and the importance of sound and music and how it... How it can really change the mood or the scene in a way that I never stopped to think about it before. The drive-thru scene? “A double burger with fries.” Man, had to get it. Me and my cousin, we quote this movie all the time.”

John David Washington and Malcolm Washington

Reginald Hudlin director

“Menace II Society by the Hughes brothers. Early in our careers, people would mix up the Hudlin brothers and the Hughes brothers. We laughed about it all the time because they would compliment me over Menace II Society, they would compliment them for House Party, and we decided we would claim each other’s body of work. So, if you see one of us, we’ll just say yes, and, you know, we’re all brothers.”

Reginald Hudlin