Hurricane Streets

"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)

This is my favorite independent film. The simplicity in the storyline is refreshing and the idealistic dreaming of inner-city youth is inspiring. It takes you back to a more simple time when hardships didn't get in the way of the big picture. Brendan Sexton III shines as the ambitious Marcus. Kit Carson's character brings wild imagination and hope to Marcus' life. The acting is very natural and the heart of the story lies within each of these characters. Sure, it would be nice to learn more about each one. It's the ambiguity that has kept at least one person interested from start to finish. For anyone who has ever dared to dream and think outside the confines of the area you grew up in, "Hurricane Streets" will take you on the joyful (but bumpy) journey of youth. Beautiful film by the wonderful Morgan J. Freeman.

This movie has many great points. The main character, 15 year old Marcus, added a great raw aspect to this movie that i haven't seen too often in other films, through his acne-ridden face with seemingly no make-up and harsh young new york accent. The film has a fine plot, but its logic gets very confused towards the end. The ending of the movie left many sub-plots of the movie unfinished, but after pondering it for awhile, i realized that it was a great way to end the movie. Hurricane Streets is similar to the film KIDS in many ways, but falls short of meeting KIDS' underlying messages and tones, and it's fantastic realism. 'Hurricane' does however have much more soul and feeling displayed than KIDS.

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 ****

This is the first time that I have seen Brendan Sexton III on screen and I was really impressed. The movie does start a little slowly, but it is worth sticking with. It is more like a French movie than an American one something like 'Les Quatre Cents Coups', where the atmosphere is almost more important than the action. The leading actors are a gang of youngsters all of whom are very good in their roles. The hero reminds me of River Phoenix in 'Running on Empty.' I would recommend it.