Off the Hook

Walter is the positive one, Lorenzo the negative. Adam Watstein's debut, Off the Hook, has been compared to Mean Streets and Hoop Dreams, which also revolve around yin and yang characters. The former was fiction and the latter nonfiction, but this low-budget ode to life in the South Bronx 1990s blurs the line between the two. Walter Velasquez, who plays himself (a college student who coaches baseball on the side), based the story on his hip-hop partnership POS-NEG with drug dealer Lorenzo Lewis (Jamal Mackey). Walter's girlfriend, Narine (Pamela Johnson), is Lorenzo's sister (Walter and Narine's real-life son, Deion, has a cameo). Anthony Young, their community-activist mentor, coproduced with Velasquez and also plays himself. Off the Hook is grittier than most of its bigger-budget counterparts, but Watstein does an admirable job at rising above the cliché inherent in the oft-told tale of a good guy and his not-all-bad-guy buddy. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Movie Details

Cast: Jamal Mackey, Walter Velasquez, Pamela Johnson, Anthony Young, L. Vee Anduze, Mizan Nunes, Kim Anthony, Trevor David, Jasmine Francis, Aaron Francis, Linwood Holder, Gregory Prather, George Ratchford, Roland Sands, William Gee
MPAA Rating: PG
Running time: 108 min
DVD Aspect Ratios: 1.85:1

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DVD Features:

Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)

Two music videos by Pos-Neg: Off the Hook, Welcome to the Bronx

Epilogue: Walter and Narine at the Park

Epilogue: Pos-Neg Where Are They Now?

DVD International release dates:
North America: Jul 8, 03