50
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovSugar Hill is arguably the most beautiful-looking crime drama since Coppola's Godfather, Part II. Forsaking the glitz and over-the-top grittiness of New Jack City and other recent NYC gangster films, director Ichaso instead opts for the lush, burnished earth-tones of the Corleone clan. It's a dark, rich film, and its lengthy running time of over two hours glides by with only a few annoying snags.
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliWhile the story doesn't score points for originality, the themes addressed are important and immediate, and ultimately it's a failure in execution that keeps this film from joining the ranks of a number of recent, memorable pictures chronicling life on the streets and in the ghettos.
- 50Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranWading through blood is too much of a price to pay for Sugar Hill’s pluses, and it’s a shame the movie business has made it difficult for them to be experienced any other way.
- 50Time OutGeoff AndrewTime OutGeoff AndrewThe generally strong performances do justice to scriptwriter Barry Michael Cooper's evident desire to avoid the New Jack stereotyping of many contemporary black crime movies; the fluid camera and lush jazz score ensure that it looks and sounds classy; and much of the time the director's understatement and attention to detail are a distinct advantage. However, matters are not helped by an actorly tone, some plot-stopping big speeches, and an often sluggish pace.
- Intended as more than a simple genre flick, SUGAR HILL aspires to something like classical tragedy, but it's weighed down by its sense of self-importance.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanSugar Hill wants to tear up our insides, but I’m afraid the movie leaves us hooting with disbelief instead.
- Several graphic scenes of torture and vengeance merely add to the movie's primer of inhuman brutality, and Sugar Hill's tragic, almost Shakespearean climax is undermined by a Band-Aid of a "positive" ending that rings patently and offensively false.
- 40EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanSugar Hill wants to be very different to the other Boyz in the Hood style films by using a second rate Spike Lee approach but sadly it doesn't make the film any better, only highlighting its failures. With the market heavily saturated with these 'hood' gangster films, this fails to stand out.
- 40The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinMr. Ichaso's slow, deliberate direction of Barry Michael Cooper's windy screenplay is painfully slack. If this film doesn't resort to much vicious gunplay until its later sections, that may be because the characters are always in danger of talking one another to death.
- 40VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyA self-indulgent drama about a Harlem drug kingpin trying to go straight, Sugar Hill plays like a dreary variation on New Jack City.