The "Black people killing black people" movie genre of the '90s.
The reason Spike Lee's U.S. box office didn't grow with each of his films - he was competing against this.
One part empowering ("We're making a movie!") to two parts shameful ("And we do what?"), most of this genre is a disgrace. Proving the lessons of the '70s blaxploitation era were only partly understood. Was it good for growth? A cinematic version of "crawl before you can walk"? A necessary step before going on to make better (in quality and responsibility) films?
Well, if you think so, take a moment to look at the leaps and bounds of that genre's "stars."
...Yeah. Didn't exactly change the game, did they?
The genre's most positive contribution would be the scores of nicknames it provided for rappers. Seriously. When rappers got tired of referring to themselves as '70s era movie characters and REAL gangsters/mobsters, they had this treasure trove to go through. Take out every mention of the "BPKBP" genre and you're left with a lot of great instrumentals.
This is not to say all of the movies in this genre are bad. Some of them are very good. But once you get past the five big names, you've got a lot of crap.
This also isn't to say other genres, in the '90s or any other decade, didn't suck. Every genre in the '90s, with the possible exception of the adult drama, suffered greatly - only a few sips better than the deplorable 1980s (you wanna talk about a decade for bad films? But I digress). But those other genres didn't limit, prohibit, and otherwise disable its makers. Pick ten horrible rom-coms from the '90s and you'll find 20 people who went on to bigger and better films/careers. Pick five good "BPKBP" films and you're hard pressed to find anyone whose career has advanced. Wesley Snipes went from playing a mobster to going to jail like one. 2Pac went out like a real life Bishop. Ice-T went from playing a cop to playing a boring one.
Now you're left with an audience and movie makers who are not just sick of only seeing these kinds of movies, but have little interest in any other kind of movie. No one's saying every movie has to be some great uplifting cinematic exaltation of joy. But does every movie starring/"for" black folks have to feature such levels of violence? It shouldn't come as a surprise that movies like PRECIOUS and HUSTLE & FLOW were successful - they're direct descendants of that '90s genre.
So enjoy BOYZ IN THE HOOD, KING OF NEW YORK, SUGAR HILL, JUICE - they're good flims, very well made. But recognize what they, and the rest of that genre, did for the choices of films you like/you watch/you see/they make.



"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams