Baby Boy

Writer/director John Singleton fails to deliver his usual charisma and intensity in this companion piece to his 1991 breakthrough film Boyz N the Hood. Shifting gears from his trademark gangster themes, Singleton examines the emotional infancy that traps African Americans and limites their potential to achieve the American Dream. R&B star and MTV host Tyrese Gibson stars as Jody, a chauvinistic pot smoker who sells stolen dresses, has fathered two kids with different women, and still lives with his own mother (A.J. Johnson), who must have gotten pregnant in the third grade. Some tension arises when the mother's new boyfriend moves in, a beefed up and bare-butted menacing ex-thug (Ving Rhames), but the monotonous sequences, hot and cold inconsistencies, comic-relief cameo by Snoop Doggy Dog, and out-of-nowhere ending keep this film from ever growing up.