Set It Off

REVIEW
Four black women, close friends and sick and tired of being screwed by the system, decide to turn the tables by robbing some banks. An enjoyable caper film, Set It Off is never believable, but energetic and pulpy enough to satisfy. The social commentary is obvious, and the circumstances leading up to the ladies' fateful decision is as heavy-handed and generic as a stock gangster film from the '30s. Once you can get past the "it's society's fault" exposition, however, Set It Off becomes a genuinely entertaining crime film which manages a few kinetic action scenes along the way. Latifah steals the show as a kick-ass lesbian tough, and Pinkett is quite affecting as a woman of conscience.