Chapter
& Verse: A Harlem Story (2015/Anchor Bay DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Film: C+
After
spending 8 years behind bars, Lance Ingram (Daniel Beaty) returns
home to Harlem to start over a new life, but things aren't easy for a
man on parole and with a record, and things don't change in the
ghetto. Unable to find a job, he is forced to work as a food
deliveryman. It is on his delivery route he meets Ms. Maddy (Loretta
Devine), a spirited grandmother living with her grandson Ty (Khadim
Diop). And while Ty is a good kid, he gets involved with the local
gang. Lance will have to decide if he can help Ty and keep him from
walking down the same path as he once did in Jamal Joseph's Chapter
& Verse: A Harlem Story (2015).
This
leaves Ty a 'gangsta wannabe' and he reminds Lance of his younger
days in some ways. Lance wants to do right by Ms. Maddy and tries to
be a big brother to Ty and keep him from becoming a gangster, but
sometimes tough love isn't enough and he has to use some of his old
skills from his hood days to help get Ty out of the game.
This
is a tale told too often, Harlem kids becoming gangsters, thinking
they can get away with anything because they are kids. Growing up in
the hood it is hard to avoid to be connected to crime when crime is
turned into a life style, but gangsters can not see beyond their own
two hands that they are destroying their own future. It is the age
old tale of the old man wanting to turn over a new leaf, but he is
force to return to some of his old life when he wants to help the
young boy from sharing the same fate as him. This version offers
little new.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is digitally shot, a little
weak and has some motion blur, while the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
has flaws and is not too good. There are no extras.
-
Ricky Chiang
