‘Hoodlum’ Doesn’t Deserve All The Time And Effort Spent

“Hoodlum” is a movie that didn’t have to be made.

It tackles no original subject matter, it takes no creative approach to the same topic, it gives no underrated actor a chance to shine, and it advances no socially aware viewpoint. And there is more blood in this movie than there was in “Mimic.”

“Hoodlum,” supposedly the tellall story of the numbers racket in Harlem during the Great Depression, is the down-and-dirty version of the gang war between the two competing rackets: Madame Queen (Cicely Tyson) and Bumpy Johnson (Laurence Fishburne, and a newcomer, Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth).

As the film would have it, Madame Queen and Johnson are the good guys, despite their identical illegal activity with the bad guys. Supposedly, the numbers is the one home-grown business that Harlem blacks have, and it funnels money into that sector.

Never mind the gambling addictions, constant infighting and murderous squabbles with other gangs. Obviously, keeping a homegrown business in Harlem is more important than preventing a few dozen killings.

Madame Queen had always been the leader in her game until Schultz and his gang came upon the scene, chopping out their share by force. Also on Schultz’s side is Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia), whose role in both 1930s New York and the film is quite unclear.

When Johnson gets out of jail early in the film, he is reunited with Madame Queen, and when she is taken to jail later in the film, he takes over her operation. This sets the stage for the major conflicts in the film.

For the first two-thirds of “Hoodlum,” the movie feels like a fable. Johnson is a fair, considerate head of an illegal racket, and Schultz is really mean. Therefore, the movie might say, Johnson should win and Schultz should die.

As far as I’m concerned, they’re all bad guys. The story may deserve to be told anyway, but to pick sides spelled the film’s demise.

Which is too bad, given the fine cast. Fishburne is adequate as usual, although he displays his usual talent in picking a bad script. Roth, best known for quirky roles like the bellhop in “Four Rooms” and Tupac Shakur’s piano-playing buddy in “Gridlocked,” doesn’t let himself fall victim to type and is consistently interesting.

Andy Garcia’s role is too small to make for much of anything; his character’s purpose was foggy through most of the film. Often, it looked like the director just wanted a well-dressed white guy on screen.

Worst of all, “Hoodlum” tries to weave a love story into the whole mix. Johnson has a lengthy affair with Francine (Vanessa L. Williams), who respects his fair and considerate method of running his racket, but is put off by his constant killing. Well, I was, too. The blood wasn’t disturbing at all, but that’s only because it was so consistently present. It almost seemed like a ritual for the film to kill someone every few minutes. More importantly, the blood was worthless, as far as the script was concerned. The murders were often important to the plot, but the graphic nature of their presentation was completely unnecessary.

Like everything else in the film, that’s nothing new. The story itself might deserve to be told in some TV miniseries - for all I know, it already has been - but it isn’t worth the time and effort someone mistakenly put into it.

Grade: D