This is one of my favorite movies. It never was big box-office success if i remember correctly, but I would recommend it to anyone. The real beauty of this movie is found in the harshness of the world it portrays, dark, maze-like, and violent, and the way the characters both clash with and reflect this environment. Unfiltered and realistic, we can feel the griminess of these Harlem streets, starkly contrasted by the life in the young men that walk them. They're a crew, brothers, and they display a love only truly understood by those similarly rejected by society at large. <br /><br />Juice: it's the goal of their lusts and the cause of their fall. In the street vernacular it means power and respect, and is embodied largely in the simple possession of a gun. To take this path, to take up this tool, will hold dire consequences for every one of the crew.<br /><br />It is an engrossing pleasure to watch Bishop (played with disturbing intensity by Tupac Shakur) as his already thin shell of morality, held tentatively in place by his crew, erodes completely away... spelling doom for those around him. Equally gripping is Omar Epps' Q, struggling vainly against the nightmare his world has become, the judgment of the ledge looming in his future. As their world falls around them, Bishop, Q, Raheem, and Steel must come to terms with the choices they've made, the darkness they have embraced, and the consequences of power misused. Rakim said it best: Let's see if they know the ledge.