Should have been titled "Hip Hop Karate Kid"

Rating: Null/10 (9 November 2002)

This movie is basically a rehashing of every down and out tough luck kid who has a dream and then achieves his goals. This includes "classics" like The Karate Kid, Rad (yeah, you remember that BMX movie, don't you?), even some more violent stuff like Bloodsport. There simply isn't much here... There are a lot of little plot points that don't have anything to do with the story: the conflict with his ex-girlfriend, conflicts with his new girlfriend, conflicts between his mother and her boyfriend, conflicts between him and a guy from his neighborhood, conflicts between him and a rival rap crew, conflicts between him and his own rap crew, and finally... conflicts between him and himself. The movie runs the gamut of dysfunctional relationships, trying to find at least one that you'll buy into, but none of them are developed, and none of them are at all suspenseful because you know that it'll all work out in the end (or you don't care enough to notice that the conflicts weren't developed and were simply forgot about). The few "freestyle MC battle" scenes were decent... but they were scripted, not freestyled, so they lose their impact. The colors were nice and the cinematography during the MC battles was pretty good, but that's all the positive I can say. Anyone under 14 who doesn't really think about the quality of the story will most likely blindly enjoy this.