Talk about your dysfunctional families. Years ago, then-10-year-old Roemello Skuggs and his year-older brother, Raynathan, watched as their junkie mother died of an overdose. Their mom apparently had been turned on to the stuff by their musician father, who is now a pathetic, burned-out addict himself. As for the boys, they have managed to survive childhood and have settled on the same career track. Both are drug dealers.
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Yes, Leon Ichaso’s “Sugar Hill” is still another slam-and-bam action pic about dealing in Harlem-a sort of “New Jack City Redux.” The difference is that Wesley Snipes, who played the flamboyant dealer Nino Brown in “New Jack,” is now a dealer who is tired of violence. “So many dreams turned into nightmares,” he says to his dead mother in one of several reveries. “The boy you loved is the man you feared.”
Consequently, Roemello (Wesley Snipes) wants to walk away from his chosen profession. Fat chance. Even though he has fallen in love with a comely would-be actress (Theresa Randle) and wants to walk the staid and narrow, he and his more troubled, less controlled brother (Michael Wright) are too entrenched in the illicit battle for Sugar Hill, once one of Harlem’s most prestigious areas and now a blasted-out jungle.
Those challenging their turf-and mortality-include a onetime boxer and new thug on the block (Ernie Hudson of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle”) and an aging Mafia man who fronts as a deli/grocery owner (Abe Vigoda, looking more and more like the latter-day Boris Karloff).
Ploddingly written by Barry Michael Cooper, this shrug-evoking movie has been grimly directed by the numbers by Ichaso, who overlays his production with the obligatory sax music and in-your-viscera violence. (In addition to the expected gunplay, two women get their faces smashed, a man is burned alive and then strung up, and another unfortunate soul is riddled with bullets and then-in what passes these days for a coup de grace-is urinated upon.)
The acting is decent enough. When he is not whacking people, Snipes underplays his part as the brooding, sensitive Roemello (we know he is sensitive because he plays chess, drinks cognac and regularly reads The New York Times). Wright (“The Five Heartbeats”) nicely pulls back from what could be an over-the-edge performance while, as the lads’ pitiful father, Clarence Williams III degenerates effectively.
Leslie Uggams is also on hand briefly-catch her quickly-as the OD-ing Mom, while newcomer Randle is mostly asked to look stunning and wear oh-so-short dresses. However, she does get what turns out to be, inadvertently, the movie’s best line, at one point telling her Roemello, “You know, every time I go out with you, someone dies.”
”SUGAR HILL”
(star) (star)
Directed by Leon Ichaso; written by Barry Michael Cooper; photographed by Bojan Bazelli; production designed by Michael Helmy; edited by Gary Karr; music by Terence Blanchard; produced by Rudy Langlais and Gregory Brown. A 20th Century Fox release; opens Friday at Burnham Plaza, Chestnut Station and outlying theaters. Running time: 1:55. MPAA rating: R. Violence, strong language, sexual situations.
THE CAST
Roemello Skuggs…………………..Wesley Snipes
Raynathan Skuggs………………….Michael Wright
Melissa………………………….Theresa Randle
A.R. Skuggs…………………….. Clarence Williams III
Gus Molino……………………….Abe Vigoda
Lolly Jonas…………………….. Ernie Hudson