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.
Comment
03/26/09
Dead Presidents (1995)
41
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:12
Rotten:17
Average Rating:5.6/10
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: The year is 1968, and Anthony, a naive, sweet black teen from the Bronx, impulsively decides to join the Marines and fight in Vietnam. After a very disturbing tour of duty, Anthony returns home in... [More]
Starring: Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, N'Bushe Wright
Director: Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes
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Reviews for Dead Presidents
Top CriticThe intense and excessive climactic set piece caper scene is the only true highlight in a superficial film.
01/31/09
Platoon lite with a bitter ending that doesn't work in its favor...
07/10/07
Significant as both history and film art, this gloomy film has no "convenient" villains and refuses to indulge in stereotypes, instead focusing on larger forces, such as racism and political apathy.
06/20/06
There are intriguing aspects to this yarn, and the brothers can choreograph a scene, but you get the impression that they learned all they know from other movies, the blood and guts is gratuitous...
01/26/06
Excellent performances, a great soundtrack, and the Hughes' technical virtuosity make it worth a look.
01/13/04
Talent of Hughes brothers deserves viewer's attention even when their results don't meet such high standards.
09/23/03
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.
05/20/03
No review available.
05/14/03
No review available.
05/05/03
No review available.
12/24/02
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.
06/18/02
Top CriticUnfortunately, the filmmakers were overzealous in trying to cover a variety of issues, leaving the story choppy and without resolution in places.
06/05/02
All directors experience a "second-movie slump," and as far as slumps go, this one is more than honorable.
04/17/02
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.
05/12/01
Top CriticMade 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.
02/13/01
Top CriticTate gives a strong performance as Anthony but much of this movie unfolds predictably -- the kind of action you've seen a hundred times in movies before and a thousand times on television.
01/01/00
The level of exaggerated violence and gore is so gross and disgusting that the film takes on a horror-movie look, which tends to undermine its intentions as a thoughtful exploration of troubled times for blacks.
01/01/00
A film that is both tightly focused -- on one man's experience in Vietnam and the South Bronx in the late '60s and early '70s -- and broadly resonant.
01/01/00
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