Sucker Free City

I have to say that I was surprised at how excellent this film was for a "made for Showtime" film (thought I shouldn't have been that surprised since it was directed by Spike Lee) -- it's got an engaging and strong plot line, extremely strong and realistic characters, solid acting, and it keeps moving at a good pace, yet doesn't bombard you with superfluous action, camera tricks, or extraneous pumped-up music.

My only criticism is that it sort of peters out at the end with a somewhat weak, anticlimactic (nearly ambivalent) ending. But don't let my small criticism discourage you from checking this flick out -- it's definitely worth your time to seek it out.

Leon is one of the most entertaining sociopaths I've ever seen depicted. Hilarious and scary at the same time. Showtime dropped the ball on picking up the series

I was amazed by the surrealism of this movie to know this sort of stuff is really going on everyday all over the world. It shows you a side of the gang life no other movies wants to show you, more then just the violence.The allegiance. This movie shows you how one gang on one side of town ends up dealing with other gangs and shows you the rules of the street, NO MERCY for any. I would recommend this movie to anyone whether I think they would like i or not. This movie to any one with an open mind as this will open you up in a few new ways. I'm not sure where you can find it but if you do let me know because I want a copy of this since I seen it on The Movie Network.

Much better than I expected - more real and gritty depiction of street life in SF than most NYC-based movies. Believable and gripping story line. Negative: Most of the story lines were left wide open w/out any closure. In retrospect, seems obvious it was a pilot for something bigger - just doesn't stand well on its own - just leaves the viewer wanting more. I would definitely watch this series in its entirety. Acting: Excellent acting from a group of unknowns - and a couple good cameos from seasoned actors. Direction: most of the scenes were very tight - no-nonsense, great editing. Camera-work: google-earth (like) opening credits and use of geography was really cool to show where scenes were happening. Some old-time TV scrolling narratives/history were a nice touch. Good recommendation ROH.

While watching this movie I was thinking to myself "What an interesting plot with all these people's stories intertwined". Five minutes later it ended just as I was getting engaged in the movie and the characters.

I'd probably give the film an 8 if it hadn't ended so abruptly. I actually came here to look for a sequel because I wanted to know how things ended. I learned from other reviews that it's a pilot episode for a series that was never released.

I suppose that as a pilot for a TV series, it was great, but as a standalone movie, its inconclusive ending is really disappointing. If you don't mind a movie ending with lots of loose ends, you may enjoy this film very much. If you do, save yourself the time and watch another movie instead.

I'm not an expert, but I enjoyed how the lights and music were adapted to different sceneries (e.g. more red-ish light and Chinese-sounding music in Chinatown).

Regarding another review: I don't care if the characters don't wear genuine SF "gangsta" clothing. It's a movie for ***'s sake, not a documentary! You can't expect a fictional story to be entirely real. As a Scandinavian, I found it to be fairly realistic.