Netflix Instant Watch Review of "4 Life"

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you another installment of the Unfresh Feeling's ongoing series of Netflix Instant Queue reviews. For the newbies out there, these postings are a service I provide to you where I choose an obscure movie (often either foreign, independent or straight-to-DVD) and basically tell you how fucked up you would have to be to enjoy it.

This week's movie is called 4 Life, a gangsta flick set in Baltimore. The plot (a word used very generously in this case) is about a feud between the two shot callers of a drug gang (I assume they are involved with drug sales, but the movie doesn't actually show any drugs nor does it make any direct reference to the source of the gang's income) called Dogs 4 Life (some of the characters pronounce is 'Duggs' for Life, which is funny to me because I live in Baltimore, but probably just confused viewers outside the 410 area code).

The reason I decided to watch this movie, aside from the fact that it is set in my hometown, is because it stars several veterans of The Wire. (Aside from sharing several of the same actors, 4 Life features plenty of those obligatory wide angle, panning west to east, transitional shots of the inner harbor and downtown skyline that cut to gritty Westside street corners that David Simon's team perfected. In 4 Life they just look low rent.) Wood Harris, who, so adeptly, played Avon Barksdale in The Wire portrays Davon in 4 Life. Davon wants to get out of the game, but his incarcerated partner Ty, played by Page Kennedy (most famous from his role as U-Turn on Weeds), won't let him for reasons that are very unclear. When Ty makes a preemptive strike against Davon from prison, Davon enlists the help of J.D. Williams, Bodie from The Wire, to exact revenge.

Unfortunately, casting alone could not save this piece of crap. The plot makes no sense, the characters are flat and when they start dying it is unclear how the viewer should feel about it. The dialog is terrible, which is the most disappointing thing of all. Typically, in these "urban" genre movies you can at least count on some hilarious dialog. Think the "Pen Gun Scene" from Thicker Than Water or the "What Hand You Roll Up Wit' Scene" from State Property or pretty much any scene from the hood classic Choices. The only relatively funny line is when Ty vents to his cellmate about Davon, complaining that Davon "aint from the block, the nigga is from Randallstown!" which is funny to me, but probably not anyone who has never heard of Randallstown (which is pretty much everyone not from Maryland).

Final Verdict:
From just looking the cast, the synopsis and the picture of the movie shown on Netflix, choosing to watch this movie is a no-brainer. I would decided to watch it sober. Actually enjoying the movie once it starts is a whole other story. To enjoy 4 Life, you need something a little stronger than the normal chronic and alcohol combination I typically recommend. To make it through this movie, I suggest at least 30 mils of an opioid painkiller or like 2 or 3 Ambien.