Though this often plays like a 70s cop show, it became a prototype for the bling-heavy gangsta melodramas of the 90s.

Filmmakers pull off a provocative, pulsating update on gangster pics with this action-laden epic about the rise and fall of an inner city crack dealer.

It's a superior example of what used to be called blaxploitation, with Van Peebles piling on corruption and carnage for all he's worth.

Cooper’s script detests the city-conquering gangster Nino Brown (Snipes), but Mario Van Peebles’ camera is in love with him. The result is an indelible villain, memorialized by wild Dutch angles and prodigious overhead cinematography.