Know Thy Enemy

Wow -- what to say: a laughably bad film! Poor performances (mainly from the lead character -- most others are okay), weak script, mediocre music, the usual clichés for the genre, corny dialog, dull and dragging storyline, amateurish cinematography, etc. My son and I had a good time laughing our way through this one; it's funny for all the wrong reason. My theory about such projects is this: an audience is willing to overlook a low-budget effort (such as this one), as long as the film's script and the acting is tight (unlike this one). You'll inevitably question how the lead actor was chosen for the part -- did somebody owe him money, big time!!! I'll conclude by saying something positive: the film is well-intentioned -- no doubt all those involved meant well, despite how overwhelmingly inept they were in every possible way. I'd skip this one if I were you.

At first when I thought of watching this movie I had all of the negative doubts one would have about another "rapper movie". I thought that it would fall into the same clichéd traps so many large budget films tend to gravitate towards. What surprised me first was the story of the young boy who turns into the famous rapper and by "keeping it real" has to pretend to be a gangsta. .I felt that the duality was quite strong and felt quite real. That is paired with the record company creating a feud with Nate, the main character, and his longtime friend, Razor. The young actor, Sheaun McKinney, who plays Nate does a great job portraying Nate's inner turmoil while trying to keep up his street cred and retaliating against razor. Acting in this film, for the most part, is well directed and well played out with a couple of exceptions in the minor roles. This is to be expected in an independent production. The overall visual styling and editing were very good, but still showed traces of the work of an amateur. Certain edits seems a bit abrupt at times and others were a bit confusing as to what the intention was. Overall however the shots seemed well planned and very well lit.

My final verdict is 7 stars for a well put together film that kept me entertained and appealed to me visually. I will be sure to check out Lee Cipolla's work from here on in.

To give a one star review would be foolish and ignorant of the obvious hard work and talent this director has truly shown on only his second feature film.