Dough Boys
With its bullets, bravado and brazenly bad soundtrack Dough Boys may not deliver a powerful or thought-provoking script, but it surely will keep you entertained.
Dough Boys tells the story of four friends trying to "hustle" their way out of the hood. In the film Corey (Arlen Escarpeta), Smooth (Cory Hardrict), Black (Maurice McRae) and Long Cuz (Lorenzo Eduardo) embark on a journey to a loosely guarded storage facility in order to steal some casino chips.
Their plan is to "unload" the chips on some all purposes "dealer," get the money and eventually escape "the hood."
But when they accidentally try to sell the chips to the same crime lord they stole them from, the only "deal" they get is to raise $10,000 or die.
A lot like the early 90’s street drama Juice, the plot of Dough Boys centers on group dynamics.
There’s a leader, two followers and an independent "thinks for himself" kind of character; but the roles throughout the film get questioned and redefined as the plot becomes more and more complicated.
While the storytelling of the film isn’t entirely stagnant, the bad audio quality and atrocious dialogue can give viewers a headache.
The actors tend to mumble, get their lines muffled by an obnoxious score or completely announce their subtext when they are audible.
Visually speaking, the cinematography of Dough Boys is much like that of The Shield.
The shots are jerky and almost documentary-like, which gives the film a very real and gritty quality. Luckily, the cinematography picks up the pace of the plot and even enhances some of the badly choreographed action scenes.
In its defense, Dough Boys isn’t a boring film. True, it may have a bad script and cheesy soundtrack, however the film does keep one mildly entertained and has a few plot twists that are genuinely surprising.
