Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Awesome Movie

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

State Property kept me interested all the way through. It was basically the same story as Scarface, but set in Philadelphia: a guy with nothing decides he wants to make a lot of money, so he starts killing people until he is the main drug dealer in his area. I want to say the movie was well written, but I feel like it's hard to tell if there was a script or if the actors were mostly improvising. The dialog feels very natural, and I believed pretty much every performance. Beanie Siegel carries the story as the no-nonsense central character. He is very straightforward and blunt about confronting every obstacle to his business. As the story progresses, I felt like there was a logic to most of his decisions, even when he was doing something crooked. For example, if he decided to kill other drug dealers to get them out of his way, it wasn't too shocking, since they had to know it was a dangerous lifestyle. But when Beans threatens a character named Ceasar, it felt like a turning point in the movie. Beans meets Ceasar in his detail shop and tells him he has to work for him. Ceasar comes off as being very straightforward, telling Beans that if he did this, it would put him in the middle of him and another dealer, explaining that he couldn't just change allegiance without endangering his own life. Instead of seeing it from Ceasar's point of view, Beans just guns him down. It felt different from the rest of the violence in the movie because Ceasar wasn't arguing with or disrespecting Beans, he was just explaining what would happen if he did what Beans wanted. It seemed like a very unprovoked response, and it ends up leading to Beans' arrest and conviction. Ceasar lives and goes to court, but is blackmailed into changing his mind about testifying against Beans. The judge still sends Beans away, and the movie ends, but I already have the sequel going, so I'll let you know where it goes from here. Hopefully it's more of the same, because I never got bored watching part 1. One minor disappointment: I didn't feel like they made much use of the setting. I would've like to have seen more details specific to Philadelphia.I've noticed that a lot of these low budget straight to video movies set in the hood seem to find a lot of actors and actresses who give performances that feel very naturalistic. I don't feel like I can see them "acting," they just seem to "be" their characters. The dialog doesn't have a cadence that sounds recited-- It seems like a common thread I am finding in movies from this genre. I'd be curious to know if the filmmakers are casting people they know and everyone is just naturally talented, or if the people in the movie are even real actors with careers. Maybe they are actually from the city where the movie is made and it's just easy to be themselves on screen. For whatever reason, I feel more like I'm watching real people than when I put on, say, an indie drama or a J-horror.

This Movie Is disappointing I'm horrible The plot is bad and boring,Flat-out characters,Terrible acting,the pacing fells like it's a 3 hour film,there's nothing good about this film just your everyday wannabe Scarface film.The film is about Beans who is tired of being broke so he decides to become a drug dealer with him and his friends selling drugs around Philly and making money and killing whoever gets in the way.Soon later in the film A character name Dame comes and decides to get even with Beans after he disrespects him and both of them go against each other in the film.First of all the plot is so unoriginal the fact that Beans wants to become a drug dealer out of nowhere is dumb he has no really good reason just to get money that's it nothing else.and the pacing is so long there are scenes that feel that just too long and are unimportant.As for the characters there's so flat. you don't much about beans' character.he's just a drug dealer trying to make money and that's it and the same goes for dame nothing else either he a drug dealer.as for beans' crew ABM they do bring some humor in the film but as a whole there no development for example the leader of the crew Baby Boy is so underdeveloped and very far from likable and I should point this out nobody in this film is likable.The only character that shows little bit of development is Blizz he's only motive is to be on top and get money and become a boss and goes further with that motivation when he betrays Beans but gets killed during the middle.so that's really it.As for the acting well since most of the actors are Rappers I should be easy about this but they need to step there Acting game up.Beanie Sigel as beans he really needs to take some acting lesson If he did maybe he would have given a better performance than his bad performance.Same goes for Damon Dash's acting bad.he really at times struggles with his role despite the fact that he isn't an actor.Omillio Sparks with his Over-the-top performance gets on your nerves after a while even though at times it's funny but not laugh-out loud.Jay-Z has a cameo in this film but I can't judge his acting since his screen time was so small.as for the rest of the actors They all do a bad job with there roles.For anyone who has seen this film stay away from it it's not worth your time your better off watching the the second state property which is ten times better.

All this movie is is more wanna-be thug rappers who either didn't have the heart to be a thug in real life or were frequent crime victims before they got big, so they did the next best thing...play a thug in a movie. And what's worst is that not one person in the movie could act...NOT A SINGLE ONE. Hell, they are not even all that good as rappers. I strongly recommend that you avoid this movie at all costs. Now when it comes to movies,I'm the typical guy...I feel that a movie just isn't a movie without shooting, explosions and car chases. But only when it's called for. The majority of the violence was uncalled for. And to be honest, I found it offensive because it's just another long stereotypical drug dealing-woman hating-violent-don't give a damn about nothing or no one except money black male movie.

For a film released in 2002 it seems strangely out of date. If New Jack City was a Black-gang update of the 30's style gangster thriller, State Property slavishly apes every cliché of the genre (think "Boyz in the Hood " or "Juice" without any sense of either a filmic history or even that the overt character exaggerations of way too many 90's style "hard" rap videos are anything more than a one dimensional joke. You could sit through this once (say if it were broadcast on cable late late at night) just to see how the plot developed - as knuckleheaded as it is - but would have to be braindead to think of a re-viewing. A vanity project by unimaginitive cats on an ego trip.