Belly (1998) is a movie I recently rewatched for the first time in a long time on Tubi. The storyline follows some friends as young adults deciding their direction in life as a new pure blend of crack is about to hit the streets making them richer than their wildest dreams; however, one of the friends lack of discipline and tendency for pushing buttons makes things more dangerous than they need to be.

This movie is directed by Hype Williams in a rare major motion picture project for him and stars DMX (Exit Wounds), Nas (Big Momma's House), Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins (House Party 3), Method Man (Power) and Oliver 'Power' Grant (When Will I Be Loved).

This is one of those movie that had some potential but ends up being more style than substance. The character development, acting and storyline is pretty interesting and worthwhile, especially since the cast is made up solely of rap artists. The script is solid and the cinematography and use of colors is awesome. The soundtrack and narration is legendary and almost makes the film worth watching alone. There's a club shoutout with Method Man that could have been executed better and an obvious Scarface ripoff scene that is eye rolling. I did like the actual ending of the movie and what ends up ultimately happening to the characters which feels realistic.

Overall this is an uneven movie that is worth a viewing. I would score this a 7/10 and recommend seeing it once.

First off this is one of those movie where you either hate it or love it. I loved the movie. I found it to be one of the better urban movies to come out in the 90's not better then boyz n da hood or menace II society. But It was the best one that centered around life in New York's crime underworld. I also think it's DMX's best movie so far. The movie is stylishly filmed by Director Hype WIlliams and the characters are extremely realistic. The dialog is also realistic. The movie might fall short when it comes to how the plot is set up and the overall development of the characters. That is not to say that the movie doesn't have an overall significant meaning because it does. It addresses some of the problems that face inner city youth today. Most people that don't like this movie fail to realize this fact. The minister character in the movie is not important but rather what he is saying is. With that said I feel that the movie takes bold steps to show how certain ways of life are wrong and why they should be changed. The movie is also not your typical crime/drug movie however it does have some of those moments that could have been rethought to be a bit more interesting. With all that said I recommend the movie to be at least watched once because if nothing else the movie does have a great soundtrack and decent plot.