Boricua's Bond

I absolutely hated this movie. First there were hardly any Boricua's in the film. The story was, wait, what story? It was worst than a student film. I think the director got into some money, got some singers and rappers to be in the film and then shot random scenes, not necessarily caring whether the end result would make sense or not. Don't get fooled by Big Pun appearing on the movie poster. He is in the movie a total of about five minutes and that's only because the brilliant (can you sense my sarcasm) director used the same part of Big Pun in the beginning and then again in the end. Director,(hmmm. does he even deserve that title? uhhh, NO) at any rate, Val Lik went on to create a film where every negative stereotype about latinos were blatantly perpetuated. The movie absolutely disgusts me and it will go down as the worst movie I have seen to date.

Last year while I was over my Uncle's house for Thanksgiving I found this movie on the TV. I have to say that it touched me and sucked me into it immediately after watching a few seconds of it. I can't deny half of it had to deal with that I'm attracted to Frankie Negron but it was a all-around good movie. I enjoyed seeing my fellow PRs depicted as people. Not as gang-bangers or whatever others like to see us as. Yet what I really appreciated about this movie was that they didn't try to "clean" them up; they showed that even if you grow up in a bad environment that dosen't mean that you don't have any morals or standards. Frankie Negron showed through his character that beauty can grow from concrete. The immense talent and sacrifice that his character endured depicted this. Showing that he befriended someone different from the rest of the neighborhood kids was a great example of acceptance. All around a good movie that touched me. I give it and 7.5 out of 10.

How do I start? I decided to give this movie a chance expecting to see a movie depicting the positive and negative aspects of the South Bronx, but all I saw was the negatives all the way. Almost every single character in this film is a lowlife, with the exception of Tommy, Allen and Rose. Tommy was supposed to be everyone's role model in the film, yet, most of the time he stood around and did nothing when his posse of low lives he so called "friends" did stupid and highly embarrassing things to other people. The heavy set guy taking off his clothes through half of the movie was supposed to be the comic relief, but I just found him obnoxious and not at all funny. Another major flaw of this film is its lack of story line. There is none, whatsoever. All we see for an hour and 35 minutes is the director showing almost every Puerto Rican and black in the film act like savages with absolutely no class or manners.

If this film was trying to be anything like past classics such as Boyz 'n the Hood, Do The Right Thing or Menace 2 Society, it failed miserably. At least those other films showed many other positive aspects of African-Americans and those films actually had a storyline and plot.

In the end, when this movie was over, I felt sick to my stomach of watching every single negative stereotype of Puerto Ricans in a single film. I don't even think the title is fitting. What is this bond that Boricuas share according to Val Lik anyway? A lifetime of violent behavior, promiscuous sex, irresponsibility, drugs? is that the bond? Where is the positive message? Please, do yourself a favor, especially if you're Puerto Rican. Stay away from this film, you will thank me later.

This film seems like it was inspired by a bunch of guys that sat around in the Bronx drinkin' and smokin' and laughin' at each others jokes and putdowns, then figured, "we ought to make a movie about this". Although there were moments that worked (many of the amateurs gave relatively inspired performances), the movie basically send a negative message: that Blacks and Puerto Ricans are enemies (ignoring the fact that Puerto Ricans are a mulatto race). It also perpetuates the idea that Boricuas dream and aspire to be white. Simple minds are easily influenced by this kind of tripe. For example, joanna 9 writes in her review on this website that she's from P.R. and never lived in NY, but then goes on to say that blacks mistreat Puerto Ricans. What a genius. Finally, most of the blame for the negative portrayal of Blacks in this (and any other) film rests squarely on the shoulders of the Black "actors". There are no whites in blackface to blame anymore.

Yo this movie, from an actors standpoint. I thought it was actually not bad if you look at the camera angles. It is a movie that is real, not fake like all other Hollywood movies. Some may not like it because it is not Hollywood. It is a movie that is too much real life to be appreciated. I read that the fat guy that got naked was disturbing. Come on, how classic was that. Everyone that has grown up in NY has a friend like that. All us NYorkers do. That is what makes us so unique. This movie may have had bad reviews because no one outside of NY really understands what goes on inside the borough's. If you knock this movie, you must be from outside of NY. Anyone who doesn't see the artistic value of this movie is foolish.