Rewatchables Reference

• The rooftop scene – G Money and Nino, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' – where Nino kills G Money (winner).
• Nino laying out the Carter complex vision leading into the 'everybody's making money' montage (borrowed from Scarface).
• Pookie explaining how Nino's crack setup works – the belt camera/naked drug house.
• Nino's courtroom speech: 'I'm not guilty. You're the one that's guilty...'
• Chris Rock/Pookie bike chase with Ice-T.
• Opening credits: dangling the guy off the bridge.

• G Money's green velour Adidas suit (winner).
• Color Me Badd cameo.
• Flavor Flav as MC at the 'Spotlight'.
• Opening credits with early '90s happy hip hop, big '90s graphics.
• Fat rope chains.

• How well they use Scarface – clips woven into the movie intentionally.
• Character names: G Money, Pookie, Fat Smitty, Duh Duh Duh Man, Frankie Needles.
• Ice-T as a cop – beautifully aged given his later Law & Order: SVU career.
• Nino's clothes/wardrobe.
• Chris Rock's performance as Pookie – the best he's ever been in a movie.
• Cash Money Records influence (the Carter albums were influenced by this film).

• The Italian mobsters – terrible actors, terrible accents, every piece of it doesn't work.
• Crack/the drug war itself – the movie is a major advocate of the drug war, treating it simplistically.
• The disclaimer at the end of the movie – someone should have talked Van Peebles out of it.
• Ice-T's wig.
• Women being used as pawns – the story could have been told without bringing women into the betrayal subplot.

• Martin Lawrence was originally cast as Pookie but dropped out after mentor Robin Harris died; Chris Rock was the backup.
• Tupac Shakur auditioned for G Money but was deemed too young-looking (he was 19).
• Eddie Murphy was attached to a Paramount version as Nicky Barnes (for Nino) but was too beloved to play a villain.
• Johnny Depp was considered for the Judd Nelson role but was too expensive.
• Denzel Washington discussed as possible Nino – 'he would have been too good of an actor for this movie'.

• Ice-T – the ending scene: 'I want to shoot you so bad my dick's hard' with the pulsating eye thing.
• Also the beach scene with Pookie: 'You owe my mother... you owe everybody... you owe yourself... you owe me'.

• Bill Nunn (Duh Duh Duh Man / Radio Raheem) – 'He Got Game', Mo' Better Blues, 'Spider-Man' movies; 'Super-size that guy'.
• Bill Cobbs (the old man who shoots Nino at the end) – also in Demolition Man; 'Morgan Freeman type' who stays the same age forever.
• Vanessa Williams – went on to be the only Black character on Melrose Place.

• Tracy Camilla Johns – exudes sex in every scene; lead of She's Gotta Have It, Nike Air Jordan ad with Spike Lee, Tone Loc's 'Wild Thing' video, then New Jack City – then disappeared from IMDb for 21 years
• Pookie (Chris Rock) considered but was too big a part.

Tom Sizemore as the Italian mobster (the ponytail guy) – just needs a real actor for that part.

• Ice-T explained why the sequel was botched: he got in trouble for 'Cop Killer' and Snipes got $7 million for Demolition Man.
• The film premiered at Sundance in January 1991 – only the 2nd year of Sundance.
• Barry Michael Cooper said they intentionally made a comic-book look; Nino's mansion was meant to feel like Dracula's lair.
• Chris Rock on Inside the Actors Studio: drug dealers would put crack in his pockets for 3 years after this.

• Wesley Snipes – yes; from this point on he could make any movie he wanted; 'Bigger moments, but not greater moments'.
• Allen Payne – yes; his signature role.
• Chris Rock's movie career – yes; the best he's ever been in a movie.
• Mario Van Peebles – yes, 100%; no hint he'd make a $50 million movie beforehand.
• Human bullet shields – yes (or maybe Heat).
• Ice-T – no; Bill Nunn – no (Radio Raheem is his apex).

• Would Ice-T really spend months saving Pookie in rehab? They're not related.
• Ice-T going undercover – he's too recognizable/omnipresent.
• Nino not dying in the wedding hit – Italians 15 feet away with machine guns and they miss.
• Nino goes 10-for-10 killing all the Italians from a ninja bike.
• Ice-T having a baller apartment on a cop's salary.

Logan: 'Absolutely.' Bill got excited the more he thought about it.

• How much did this movie influence The Wire? Van: shared DNA from real life rather than direct influence.
• Pookie vs. Bubbles (The Wire) in the finals for pop culture crack addict you're attached to?
• Could they have spun off Ice-T and Judd Nelson into a 'Lethal Weapon'-type franchise?

• Nino's cane that doubles as a knife/sword – 'never seen it in a movie other than this one' (Logan and Bill).
• Nino's chain with the dollar sign on it (Van).
• The silk shirts – bring them back (Chris Ryan).

Wesley Snipes – 'a Tour de Force performance'; Chris Rock argued as runner-up but Snipes is the clear winner.