This feature is a grim, violent urban saga of a dysfunctional family that plays out amid the decay and ugliness of Harlem. This storied community, long neglected and portrayed as unredeemable, takes another hit as families disintegrate and drug wars are the order of the day. The film has an odd symmetry in that it opens and closes with scenes of drug overdoses which may explain why two impressionable youngsters who should know better get swallowed up drug distribution activities and violent crime. The movie also shows black men in a very poor light as every single character is flawed beyond measure and not one of them has a single redeeming quality. Besides the self-loathing of Harlem and its residents, the film's parallel theme serves up the familiar race war shoot-outs between black hoodlums and Mafia thugs who are determined to hold on to lucrative drug markets uptown. Wesley Snipes headlines a good cast that is sadly wasted in this picture. Michael Wright is very good as the angry, bitter Raynathan but with films like "Super Fly", "New Jack City" and several other films of this type out there, who needs another one?