Juice is a 1992 crime drama film that has gained a certain classic status. The movie stars Tupac Shakur and Omar Epps. The film has an additional cast that includes Jermaine "Huggy" Hopkins, Khalil Kain, and Samuel L. Jackson. There are cameo appearances in the film by Queen Latifah, EPMD, Special Ed, Ed Lover, Dr. Dre, Flex Alexander, Fab Five Freddy, and Treach. The film was directed by cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson who has directed and written other Hollywood films such as Surviving the Game and Bulletproof as well as some television series such as ER and The Wire.

The film touches on the lives of four urban youths growing up in Harlem. It follows the day to day activities in the young men's lives starting out as innocent mischief but growing more serious as time passes by. It also focuses on the struggles that these young men must go through everyday as well such as police, harassment, and their families.

The film was shot on location in New York City mainly in the Harlem area. It was Rated R by the MPAA for its strong language and violence.

Synopsis

Bishop (Shakur), Q (Epps), Raheem (Kain) and Steel (Hopkins), who refer to themselves as "The Wrecking Crew," are four friends growing up in Harlem. They regularly skip school and spend their days at a neighborhood arcade and a record store stealing LPs. They are generally harassed everyday by the police or a gang led by Radames. One day, the boys grow tired of harassment and decide to go all out to win respect. They go to a store to rob the place. In the process, Bishop ends up needlessly murdering store owner Fernando Quiles, an act which begins his spiral into darkness.

After the boys flee the scene, they gather in an abandoned building and argue over the evening's events. Raheem and Bishop begin to argue with each other, and Raheem tries to take the gun back from Bishop. A struggle ensues and Bishop shoots Raheem. The boys panic and run to another building. While there, Bishop threatens to kill the other two if they tell anyone about what Bishop has done.

The other two boys talk to each other and agree to avoid Bishop as much as possible, though they end up seeing him at Raheem's funeral, even going so far as to hug Raheem's mother and promising to find Raheem's killer. They are mostly successful in their attempts to avoid Bishop but he ends up confronting them one at a time, questioning their loyalty.

Bishop ends up killing gang leader Radames after a scuffle and begins to frame Q as the murderer of Quiles, Raheem and Radames. Q looks for help and ends up getting a gun of his own for protection. While he is doing this, Bishop meets Steel and leads him to an empty alley, where he shoots him, accusing him of disloyalty. Steel, however, lives and makes it to the hospital and informs Q's girlfriend (Cindy Herron) that he is being framed by Bishop. Fed up with both the tension and troubles guns have brought upon him, Q throws his gun into the river and decides to confront Bishop unarmed. Q and Bishop finally meet up and a scuffle and chase ensues during this meeting. Q is chased into a building then a party by Bishop, where Q disarms Bishop and the chase ends on the roof of a high-rise. The two boys fight until Bishop falls off the ledge only to have one hand caught by Q. Bishop tells Q not to let go. Q struggles to pull him back up but eventually loses his grip and Bishop falls to his death.

As Q leaves the rooftop, a crowd from the party gathers to see what happened. One of the people in the crowd turns to Q and says, "Yo, you got the juice now, man." Q turns to look at him, shakes his head and walks away. The film ends with a flashback clip of the four friends together in happier times.

Cast

Actor	Role
Tupac Shakur	Roland Bishop
Omar Epps	Quincy 'Q' Powell
Khalil Kain	Raheem Porter
Cindy Herron	Yolanda
Vincent Laresca	Radames
Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins	Eric 'Steel' Thurman
Samuel L. Jackson	Trip

Advertisement controversy

In the original artwork for the promotional poster of the movie, Tupac Shakur, who portrayed one of the leads in the film, was shown prominently while holding a pistol (see film poster, above). This stirred up quite a bit of controversy at the time; some feared the advertisements might lead to violence, while others felt the issue itself showed a large double-standard towards young black youth, and hip hop culture as a whole, with other films of the time being advertised with even more violent content. Either way, Paramount was eventually swayed, and the gun was airbrushed out of all of the advertisements and promotional artwork for the film, including the covers of its VHS and DVD releases.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on December 31, 1991 on MCA Records. It reached #17 on the Billboard 200.

Tracklist

1. Naughty By Nature - Uptown Anthem (3:03)
2. Eric B. & Rakim - Juice (Know The Ledge) (4:00)
3. Teddy Riley feat. Tammy Lucas - Is It Good To You? (4:17)
4. MC Pooh - Sex, Money & Murder (2:49)
5. Big Daddy Kane - 'Nuff Respect (2:57)
6. Too Short - So You Want To Be A Gangster (4:05)
7. EPMD - It's Going Down (4:12)
8. Aaron Hall - Don't Be Afraid (5:18)
9. Salt-N-Pepa - He's Gamin' On Ya (3:35)
10. Cypress Hill - Shoot 'Em Up (3:38)
11. Juvenile Committee - Flipside (4:12)
12. Son Of Bazerk - What Could Be Better Bitch (3:01)
13. Rahiem - Does Your Man Know About Me? (5:11)
14. Brand New Heavies - People Get Ready (Remix) (4:00)

Singles

1. Aaron Hall - Don't Be Afraid
2. Teddy Riley feat. Tammy Lucas - Is It Good To You?
3. Eric B. & Rakim - Juice (Know The Ledge)
4. Naughty By Nature- Uptown Anthem

Trivia

• Tupac Shakur won the role of Bishop over his close friend, and fellow hip-hop artist, Anthony "Treach" Criss, who has a cameo as a member of Radames' gang. Shakur nailed the role when he threw a chair during his audition.

References

External links