Dead Presidents may eventually box itself into a narrative dead end, but its muscular engagement of weighty themes and explosive situations makes it a powerful drama.
Dead Presidents
In this daring heist, the only color that counts is green
1995 · 1h 59m · R
Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller, War
Directed by
Albert Hughes
,
Allen Hughes
Overview
On the streets they call cash dead presidents. And that's just what a Vietnam veteran is after when he returns home from the war only to find himself drawn into a life of crime. With the aid of his fellow vets he plans the ultimate heist -- a daring robbery of an armored car filled with unmarked U.S. currency!
Director and cast
- Albert Hughes Director
- Allen Hughes Director
- Larenz Tate as Anthony Curtis
- Keith David as Kirby
- Chris Tucker as Skip
- Freddy Rodríguez as Jose
- Rose Jackson as Juanita Benson
- N'Bushe Wright as Deliah Benson
- Clifton Powell as Cutty
- Terrence Howard as Cowboy
- Bokeem Woodbine as Cleon
- Clifton Collins Jr. as Betancourt
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Like those overreaching sophomore term papers we can all laugh at now, this disappointing film may free the Hughes brothers to move on to fresher, more inspired work.
It's an overly ambitious effort that strains to work as a coming-of-age drama, a 1960s period piece and a searing comment on the way African American GIs went largely unappreciated for their war efforts.
What emerges is an uneasy blend of didacticism and juiced-up bloodletting (the brothers don't know when to stop with the exploding squibs) that bury the film's message and its good intentions.
Made with fluid skill and a passion for storytelling, its tale of how the Vietnam War and American society affect a black Marine remains accessible while confounding expectations.
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