Dead Presidents

REVIEW
The Hughes Brothers follow their scintillating debut Menace II Society with this less impressive though not uninteresting morality tale about a young black Vietnam vet trying to build a life after the war. The film has all the elements required to be a fascinating study of this young man's struggle to reintegrate, and his fall from virtue to disgrace. But the film can't seem to decide what to be: Is it a touching ghetto melodrama; harrowing Vietnam War exposé; or shoot-'em-up heist flick? Alternately, it tries to be each of these things (literally in that order), but the transitions are not smooth and many of the characters are one-dimensional stereotypes. Tate imbues his role with more complexity than seems to have been in the script. The Hughes' once again employ a hands-off approach to their characters' moral integrity, a stance that paid off in Menace but here backfires in the face of the lead's questionable final choices.