User Reviews

Thankfully i had subtitles to understand what the dialogue that was mixed with the 'n' word and a sufficient amount of profanity. Both were very distracting. The wannabe gangsta Bean (aka Beanie Sigel) wants to take over the city of brotherly love Philadelphia. Anybody that gets in the way is wasted (i.e., killed). This happens numerous times with no threat from law enforcement. They are apparently paid off. Atd least 'Scarface' had a story you could follow and 'Goodfellas' gave you the story of Henry Hill. This one gve you nothing to work with. I lasted about 25 minutes then i said, "goodbye". I'm amazed i lasted that long.

This isn't the worse I've ever seen in my life but it definitely had some flaws. None of the characters in the movie were interesting. The movie was mostly focused on the gangster part that they forgot to everything else. For example, they to show Beanie Sigel at his Daughter's birthday party one scene for like 10 seconds to show that he's a family man. He's not a family man he's a serial killer lol. Maybe with better acting and a better story they could've pulled it off with everyone being gangster but no all of the characters were garbage.

Another problem with this movie, no one had an personality everyone was just random drug dealers and killers. If anyone wants to know why acting isn't for every rapper/singer in the world, take this movie for an example cause man, none of these people can act to save their life.

I love Beanie Sigel. He is the most underrated rapper out of Rocafella Records but this movie stunk like week-old roadkill. Beanie plays a bully who runs around with a group of thugs that beat up on people in their hometown and issue them a warning that goes "get down or lay down"! The main flaw of the movie is that nobody can act. Beanie is so laughable in his role that sometimes I crack up when he comes on screen. He is not the only one who should stick to rapping. Memphis Bleek's character was a riot for all the wrong reasons(when he shot a Beanie's car for honking the horn at him, I laughed so hard that I peed a little. Damon Dash and Jay-z are stiff as mannequins in this movie also. You cant tell that the director knew that this film was rank and told them to keep going anyway. The funniest part is when Beanie's lawyers tell him to cop a plea for a guy he just shot. Lol! His reaction was a hoot! In short this is a bad movie simple and plain. If you want to watch it to see how bad it is then fine. But you were warned.

Mostly, the whole gang of State Property is here (other than Young Gunz & Peedi Crack), complete with Omilio Sparks (Baby Boy), Oskeeno (D-Nice), and even Memphis Bleek (Blizz), a real close friend of the main character, Beanie Sigel ("Beans"). Amil & Jay-Z co-star in this thriller/crime/drama movie as they unfold in the plot.

I liked the fact Beans & Baby Boy start out in the strip club while thinking about their life, it gives a good-some feel to it, because the common man can relate to being down in the dumps and heading to their favorite strip bar. Blizz is their first recruited, how is someone they knew who just happens to pop-off someone in the club. Beans & his crew face the common challenges for any group attempting to reach respect, power & money ('the American Dream'): back-stabbing, snitches, and envy. *spoiler: Towards the end of the movie, C-zar, a man gunned down by the cops who used to work for Beans' crew talks to the police, which could endanger Beans' chance at fully living his newly-found opulent life--which he had planned to retire from soon before, on word of his lovely wife, Aisha (Sundy Carter). I loved that 1 guy poses as a handicapped and starts blasting from a hidden gun in his sling. From there, he drops a few officers, takes their guns, and ingeniously hands one to Beans. As soon as they see C-zar, cowering in a corner, one of them shoots a bullet into his head. Now, for the final part, my favorite, Beans is handed a gun and progresses to shoot all officers around. Reinforcements from outside show up and then Beans is taking down many. He gets cocky and begins mouthing off, only to be shot by Amil. With that turn of events, she blasts one bullet into the back of Beans' head when he wasn't looking and walks out of the room, as anonymous as any civilian carrying a briefcase outside the courtroom. The director did an excellent job in switching a scene to Beans' family, Aisha, his wife, and his daughter, Aja (whom he affectionately called "Stinky Butt"), crying & huddled together. This is when Beans comes back into the story and reveals it was made-up. "That only happens in the movies" he says, as he tells you what REALLY happened. He got LIFE in prison... he's State Property. I credit the director, Abdul Abott for both doing a magnificent job directing this scene and writing it in. Whether you think Nas or Jay-Z is better {or neither}, or you only like thrillers with well-known ACTORS (not rappers), I suggest you check this movie out.

The soundtrack is awesome, with Beanie Sigel songs such as "Die," "Mack B****," and State Property song, "Sun Don't Shine." Also, the acting is cool for one of Beans' & others' first movies, and the blood looks more real than not. Ernest & Abdul did such a great job writing the story I thought for a little while Beans actually wrote that on his life, based on the realistic feel. An excellent story, a radical idea (taking the "American Dream by force), and the realism make this movie worthwhile. That's why I give this story a '9 out of 10' rating.

State Property kept me interested all the way through. It was basically the same story as Scarface, but set in Philadelphia: a guy with nothing decides he wants to make a lot of money, so he starts killing people until he is the main drug dealer in his area. I want to say the movie was well written, but I feel like it's hard to tell if there was a script or if the actors were mostly improvising. The dialog feels very natural, and I believed pretty much every performance. Beanie Siegel carries the story as the no-nonsense central character. He is very straightforward and blunt about confronting every obstacle to his business. As the story progresses, I felt like there was a logic to most of his decisions, even when he was doing something crooked. For example, if he decided to kill other drug dealers to get them out of his way, it wasn't too shocking, since they had to know it was a dangerous lifestyle. But when Beans threatens a character named Ceasar, it felt like a turning point in the movie. Beans meets Ceasar in his detail shop and tells him he has to work for him. Ceasar comes off as being very straightforward, telling Beans that if he did this, it would put him in the middle of him and another dealer, explaining that he couldn't just change allegiance without endangering his own life. Instead of seeing it from Ceasar's point of view, Beans just guns him down. It felt different from the rest of the violence in the movie because Ceasar wasn't arguing with or disrespecting Beans, he was just explaining what would happen if he did what Beans wanted. It seemed like a very unprovoked response, and it ends up leading to Beans' arrest and conviction. Ceasar lives and goes to court, but is blackmailed into changing his mind about testifying against Beans. The judge still sends Beans away, and the movie ends, but I already have the sequel going, so I'll let you know where it goes from here. Hopefully it's more of the same, because I never got bored watching part 1. One minor disappointment: I didn't feel like they made much use of the setting. I would've like to have seen more details specific to Philadelphia.

I've noticed that a lot of these low budget straight to video movies set in the hood seem to find a lot of actors and actresses who give performances that feel very naturalistic. I don't feel like I can see them "acting," they just seem to "be" their characters. The dialog doesn't have a cadence that sounds recited-- It seems like a common thread I am finding in movies from this genre. I'd be curious to know if the filmmakers are casting people they know and everyone is just naturally talented, or if the people in the movie are even real actors with careers. Maybe they are actually from the city where the movie is made and it's just easy to be themselves on screen. For whatever reason, I feel more like I'm watching real people than when I put on, say, an indie drama or a J-horror.