Review of Hoodlum (1997) by Tedrico L — 04 Jun 2011

In Hoodlum, "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) plays a man recently released from prison who leads an African-American attempt to wrest control of organized crime in the Black neighborhoods of New York from the established Italian-descended criminals and goes up against the calm and cool Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia) and insanely ruthless Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth).

There is lots to grab your attention with in this movie with its colorful characters that includes Clarence Williams III, Vanessa Williams, Cicely Tyson, Loretta Devine, and Queen Latifah, and an array of good performances, especially Fishburne who's rugged and streetsmart as Bumpy Johnson, Roth who's totally over-the-top as the trigger happy Dutch Schultz and the fearsome Lucky Luciano topped with enough shoot 'em up action and violence to spare.