"Menace" IMHO is an updated version of Cagney's "Public Enemy" with a couple of characters reversed and language, violence, and sex that would be just as shocking to the 'middle class' today as "Public" was in its time. As "Public" offered only the narrowest "insight" into the motivation of the character to act out against society and become its top-rated outsider, "Menace" offers the same scenario without the possiblity of 'top billing' on the FBI's (or local Police's) MOST WANTED LIST. I found some of it refreshing. I found some of it pointless. The (continued) focus of South Central LA reminds me of the old saying, "the squeaky wheel gets the oil". I wonder (need I really?) if half of South Central hadn't gone up in flames would Hollywood even consider a storyline that gave rise to these inner city voices. (JOhn Singleton has a new film about to be released with Janet Jackson starring opposite the young actor from Erenest Dickerson's "Juice, in yet another So Central story.) Of course, the "other" and the "oputsider" have always had a fascination for mainstream (US?) audiences. I note that there has been little publicity for "MEnace" outside of a few scattered posters (remeber the slo-mo of the "drive-by shooting" that hyped Singleton's "Boyz in the Hood" ? noe of this for "Menace". Perhaps Hollywood did learn something after all? Robert Johnson, Jr Framingham State College <[log in to unmask]>