Hurricane Streets

Hurricane Streets was one of the most powerful, realistic movies I have ever seen. Marcus was on the outside who every teenager is on the inside. I should know, I'm 16.

Some decent performances were dulled by characters that never developed and a story that never really went anywhere. A tame counterpart to Larry Clark's "Kids," we are taken into the tough inner-city streets and into the lives of a few of its teenage inhabitants. I couldn't get over the feeling that I knew these kids were acting, whereas in "Kids" the performances seemed shockingly real, like a documentary. Lacking on many counts, the movie never provoked much emotion and there seemed to be no closure to any of the characters nor did I care.

"Hurricane Streets" is all about Marcus (Sexton), a disaffected teen boy struggling to grow up in the mean streets of some waterfront hood in NYC. A slow starter with a weak story, this flick manages some par performances from a cadre of young actors as it dogs along, peaking late, and ending abruptly with an unsatisfactory resolution. "Hurricane Streets" is a mediocre cable watch at best which will leave you with the feeling you've seen it all somewhere else before. (C)

I only rented this movie because Sexton was in it and i appraise him for his excellent work in "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and "Empire Records". I heard that this movie was real good if you like crime dramas, which i do. At first the movie was real upbeat and i liked it becuase i'm a teenager and i know alot of people that talk like that, i sometimes do. Towards the middle it kind of dragged and the ending was disappointing. Kind of like Welcome to the Dollhouse, you have to decide what's going to happen. But I still enjoyed, i give "Hurricane Streets" ***1/2 out of ****

I rented this one on a whim, and really enjoyed it. It's the first movie I've seen since Kids that gave a realistic portrayal of teenage life. All the actors are believable as 15-year-olds (I especially enjoyed Brendan Sexton and the girl who played Melena), and the dialogue was realistic. Up until very late in the film, all of the plot twists were things that could have happened in real life. Also, the film showed the downside of a life of crime without coming off as preachy. I'm looking forward to seeing more work from everyone involved in this film.