Juice – Review

It’s morning in Harlem and four friends are waking up. Quincy, or Q, or Gee-Q (Epps), sleeps past 7 accidentally after a late night focused on his DJ dreams, mixing his DefJam vinyl on his turntables with his headphones on. His mom blasts in as a new alarm clock. In another apartment, Q’s best friend since the 2^nd grade Roland Bishop’s (Shakur) mom cooks breakfast while his father is a million miles away in front of the TV. Raheem (Kain) spends all morning in the bathroom while his sister attempts to bribe him out of it. Eric “Steel” Thurman (Hopkins) slumbers in his bunk bed until has father bursts in to roust his sleepy ass.

This young crew spends plenty of time together, and love to skip school. After some morning street fighter at the arcade and boosting some LPs from a local store, they get razzed by police and rival gangs. Bishop is sick of the lack of street respect, but Q is focused on the DJ life. What appears to be a chance encounter of an old friend of Q’s at a local bar shifts quickly as that same friend pulls out a gun to rob the joint. Q declines an invitation to join the robbery, and leaves immediately.

Q and Bishop later argue over the robbery scenario, as Bishop dreams of more. He would have jumped into the mix, assuring glory for all. He wants the juice. That would keep people off his back. As Q mixes a tape and drops it at a competition led by a local recruiter (Latifah), he lands a path to his dream. Will Gee-Q make it as a primetime DJ, or will Bishop’s crazy ass cause too many issues, especially when guns get involved? Once again, it’s on!

Juice is a well-done crime tale that really makes violence seem unappealing and life-destroying. The paranoia of the movie is layered in on many levels, as a group of friends must reconciles with both a hostile environment and their own internal squabbling. The cast is solid, the directing matches. It was all good just a week ago!