everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This movie was filmed around the time of the Rodney King riots that ripped South Central Los Angeles. Let's face it, the heart and soul of Los Angeles isn't Hollywood. It's the people like in this movie who try to make living, earnestly, honestly, and respectively. Sadly, this film is still realistic to the plight of urban problems. I spent a lot of time in one of the great urban cities of the East Coast and the problems of poverty, the lure of leading drug dealing lives is real and tempting, domestic violence, child abuse, gangs, etc. still exist and will exist much to the attempts of prevention or society ignoring their presence. Anyway, this film is truly about the heart and soul of a city of ten million Angelenos and the father's attempt to save his son from a life of crime, violence, death, and drugs in the city. It's not an easy battle.

We need more positive movies like south central by - ladygee627 7 minutes ago (Mon Mar 28 2005 10:34:50) We need more positive movies like south central. The part of Ali played by Carl Lumbly was so touching, sincere, and genuine. He actually made Bobby Johnson change his life for the better. Nurse Shelby brought out emotions in Bobby Jr. Emotions Bobby didn't know he had in him just by a mere act of kindness of nurse Shelby playing table tennis and spending quality time with him, time that his own mother never gave him.It's the simply things that counts in life that we need to express in our Movies, our music and in our everyday lives.This is truly a must see movie!I give it a 10 & A+Outstanding!

This is a very good movie and a realistic view of south central at the time. I lived there and this is one of the few movies that showed a realistic view of life. Glenn Plummer should get more props for his acting. Some parts of this movie touched a lot of us on the streets, the acting is great. This movie laid the foundation for other popular hood movies like boyz n da hood and others, but it is much more than a hood movie it takes you through the struggles of life on the streets and how sometimes you can't help the situation that you're in. It tells of a man who had a messed up childhood, and who had to get his life together to save his son from the same hardships that he had growing up without a dad.It ends up being a true love story.. the love between a real father and his son.

This movie is one of the best in this genre,I think of it among with "Boys N the hood" and "Menace to society". It shows how hard it can be to grow up in a bad neighborhood,and how easy drugs and criminal life takes over.